In Sickness and in Shadows
by Omega19x
Summary: Ryou Bakura succumbs to an illness from the shadow realm, something more virulent and destructive than either he or his yami expected. Will he survive? Or is it far too late... COMPLETE
1. What doesn't belong

Insert disclaimer here: I do not own Yugioh. And that is probably a good thing. If I did, it would be filled with things like the following story. And 4 Kids entertainment would die of a brain aneurism from simply trying to edit it for ages 7 and under. No… wait… maybe that would be a good thing after all…

After the events of the Battle City Tournament, Ryou Bakura was glad to put some things behind him. The shadow realm was one of them.

How was he to know, though, that he took away from that experience a lot more than he originally bargained for...

Ryou had woken up that morning with a scratch in the back of his throat, a few unexplained aches, and the tickle of a slight cough. He sighed as he brewed a hot kettle of herbal tea. The second term of the school year would be starting in a few days. The last thing he wanted, or needed, was to start off the term with an unnecessary absence. And despite his usual precautions, it felt like a flu bug had become an uninvited guest.

"… just my luck, it seems…" he muttered to himself, pouring his tea into a cozy mug. He picked up a thick book, with the intention of taking it easy for the rest of the day.

His yami didn't respond.

Or at least, not as Ryou had intended.

'Something's wrong in here, host. Not that it matters to me.' The gruff voice shouted in the back of his head. 'But what'd you do?'

He had half expected the spirit to brush off this possible illness with contempt. Instead, his response almost sounded like genuine concern.

"I didn't do anything, yami." Ryou answered aloud, using the book as a coaster. "I'm just feeling a little under the weather. Flu season must be starting early this year."

'No. It's not that.'

He could feel his yami pacing in his soul room. Was something the matter?

"… yami?"

'Something's wrong in here. Very wrong in here.'

"Yami, I know you don't like it when my body gets sick, but you'll just have to accept it sometimes." Ryou attempted to explain. "Human bodies get sick from time to time…"

'You're as naïve as you are stupid!' Yami Bakura shouted.

He materialized in spirit form on the couch beside Ryou, thrusting his finger onto Ryou's chest.

'Something's very wrong in there. It's not like your petty human illnesses.' He grumbled. 'And I should know. You're sick a lot.'

Ryou resisted the urge to argue with his yami. In his mind, a couple colds a season wasn't 'a lot,' but to his yami, it must have been torture. The spirit, who detested weakness above all else, never took control if there was even a twinge of illness on the horizon.

"What are you talking about?"

'I'm not… I'm not sure. I can feel it, all right? There's something in your body that doesn't belong there…'

Ryou muffled a weak cough, and cleared his throat.

"Yami, that's ridiculous." He replied quickly. "I feel fine. Just a touch of the flu."

Yami Bakura didn't respond.

"Besides, if it didn't belong in me, where would it belong?"

The spirit leaned forward, playing with his copy of the millennium ring. His voice grew very quiet, almost remorseful as he disappeared back into his soul room.

'I think it belongs in the Shadow realm.'


	2. Symptoms and Suspicions

Ryou shrugged off his yami's comments at first. But after a couple of weeks had passed, it was clear that something was actually wrong. His yami hadn't taken control of the body since Battle City, and for good reason.

The days at school were extremely tiresome. Ryou tried his best to pay attention to the lessons, but instead found himself instead concentrating on the sudden tightness in his chest. Breathing had become extraordinarily difficult as of late, and he was constantly coughing. His bones ached, to the point that even his clothes felt painful. He had also been losing weight, his appetite diminishing more and more with each passing day. And while he tried his best to mask all of those facts, it was more than evident that he was growing sicker.

And that worried his friends.

"Heya', Ryou! Wait up!" Joey shouted as the bell rang, dismissing them for lunch.

Ryou muffled a cough and slowly turned around. His back hunched over protectively as he shivered, trying his best to straighten up again.

"Ryou, are you all right?" Tea asked.

"You don't look too well." Yugi corroborated. "Perhaps you should go home?"

"… No… That's all right… I'm fine…" Ryou lied, as a spasm of pain rushed through his chest. He hunched forward, as though his arms could hide it.

"You are not fine." Tea's face grew concerned. She put her hand on Ryou's forehead. It was more than uncomfortably warm. "You're burning up!"

Before Ryou could protest, a nasty cough escaped his throat.

"Man… Ryou, you're sick." Tristan added, eyeing the boy carefully. Ryou coughed again. "You should be at home, in bed."

"Have you seen a doctor?" Yugi asked.

Ryou weakly nodded, still coughing. He lost his balance, and almost passed out. Without thinking, he grabbed Yugi's arm for support.

"Yes, I've seen a doctor, Yugi… I've got… medicine too."

"Well that's good, but why are you still here?" Joey added.

"What did the doctor say?"

Ryou was quiet. His friends looked worried. And he hated being a burden to anyone. He slowly walked over to an empty desk, and weakly sat down. He tried to quickly recover his failing strength.

"The doctor said… it's just… just a bad case of pneumonia." Ryou eventually admitted. "It's not contagious… It must have come from… from the flu I had… And as long as I finish taking the medicine, I… I should be all right…"

"Well, that's a relief." Joey smiled.

"That sounds pretty serious though." Tristan admitted. He stared at Ryou, noticing the extra prominence of his thin cheekbones. "You should really be at home."

"Or at least taking it easy." Tea added. "You could get out of Mr. Karita's class easily."

The group paused. What any of them would probably do to get out of that gym teacher's sight, even for just a few days.

"… No… I'll be fine…" Ryou managed a weak smile, and stood up. He brushed the pain aside, and slowly walked out the door. He hunched over again once he was out of their sight, and certain that he didn't hear them following.

'Host, go home.'

He jumped in the empty hallway. The voice of his yami startled him.

'Not you too…' he answered through the mindlink.

'Well, at least you finally stopped ignoring me!' Yami Bakura shouted back, making Ryou's head throb.

'I'm fine, yami.'

'No, you're not. You're sick.' He answered. 'And you know it. Not like I should care anyway.'

Ryou continued to protest the voice in his head as he limped down the hallway.


	3. A Necessary Fear

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, Ryou's health was still the topic of choice.

"I'm serious, guys. He should really see the school nurse." Tea added, fidgeting nervously with her fingers. "His forehead was really hot."

"You heard Ryou." Joey replied. "He's been to a doctor. He's got medicine."

"Is he taking it?" Tristan questioned. He glanced at each of his friends. "He looks worse than he did last week."

"I don't know why he wouldn't take it. And Ryou doesn't typically go around lying to his buds about things!"

"Except that ring of his…" Tristan reminded everyone.

"I'm worried too, but it's really…"

'Aibou.' Yami Yugi interrupted the boy through the mindlink.

"Really what?"

'Aibou, something is wrong.' Yami Yugi added quickly. 'When he touched you, I could feel something very strange about your friend… I'm not quite positive yet of what it is, but something is certainly wrong.'

"… really our job to make sure Ryou's all right…" Yugi finished his sentence carefully, ignoring the long pause in the middle. "Come on. We should find him."

They didn't have to go far to find him, though.

Ryou had collapsed at the end of the hallway.

"Oh no… Ryou…" Tristan gasped, running towards the fallen boy. The rest of his friends followed quickly behind him.

Yugi lifted Ryou's head gently.

"Ryou, are you all right? Ryou? Can you hear me?" he whispered.

"Ryou?"

The white haired boy grimaced at the loud voices above him. His heart pounded on the underside of his ribs as he gasped for air, coughing and gagging on his own weak breath.

"Yugi, what's going on?" Tea whispered.

"I… I don't know…" Yugi admitted, letting his yami take control of the body. "I think…"

"… He's very sick." The pharaoh soon finished his hikari's sentence for him. Joey, Tristan, and Tea shared glances. Why was the pharaoh taking control? Didn't they already know why he was ill? Hadn't Ryou already been diagnosed by a doctor?

"Any idiot can see that!" Joey added quickly.

"Joey, I want you, Tea, and Tristan to call for help…" he glanced up, catching their full attention. "He needs to go to a hospital. Can you call for a doctor?"

The other three nodded quickly.

"Of course." Tristan added.

"I'll go get the school nurse." Tea suggested. "So she can sign Ryou out for the rest of the day."

"Good." Yami Yugi replied. "Hurry."

He watched the three dash off before turning his attention back to the boy in his lap.

"Ryou… Ryou, listen to me…" Yami Yugi whispered. "I need to speak to your other half."

The white haired boy gave only a disconcerting moan as a response.

"Tomb robber! I demand that you come out of there!" Yami Yugi shook Ryou gently. "Your host body might die if you don't!"

The boy trembled feverishly in the hands of Yugi's other half. His long white hair was practically drenched with sweat. His chest struggled to rise and fall. It was astonishing how much his condition had worsened within just the course of the day.

From Ryou's expression, it was clear he was arguing with his yami. Surely the spirit of the millennium ring was resisting taking control of the sick body. But he knew, especially after Battle City, that the yami would not let his host die senselessly.

After an agonizing few minutes, Yami Bakura slowly opened his eyes.

"… What do you want…" he spat quickly, feeling the pangs of Ryou's distress attack him from all sides at once. It was more than he had anticipated.

"I will make this quick. Do you know why your hikari is sick, tomb robber? Or what's wrong with him?" Yami Yugi demanded, still holding Ryou's head in his lap.

The spirit eyed the pharaoh warily. He tried to flee back inside his soul room, but Yami Yugi urged him to stay in control.

"He's a sickly boy… Like I care what my host catches."

"Don't play games with me, thief." Yami Yugi demanded again, shaking Ryou lightly. "He's very sick. Do you know what's making him ill?"

"He… he caught it in the Shadow realm... I think…" Yami Bakura finally answered, mumbling his words under his breath. He tried to suppress a thick cough, doubling over in obvious pain. His body shook as he tried to regain his composure. "Is that good enough for you?"

Yami Yugi glared into Yami Bakura's eyes. Despite the thief's usual intentions, this time, he could sense no untruth.

'Caught what in the Shadow realm?' Yugi asked from inside his soul room.

'I'll explain later, aibou.'

'What's wrong?'

Yugi protested, but his questions remained unanswered. Yami Yugi directed his full attention to the spirit sitting weakly in his lap.

"Are you certain, tomb robber?" Yami Yugi whispered back.

The spirit of the millennium ring nodded carefully.

"Oh dear…"

"… He… he got sick right after Battle City." Yami Bakura mumbled under his breath. "As soon as he came back to this realm… after you defeated that traitorous tomb keeper… He didn't listen to me… Something was in here… that doesn't belong…"

His voice grew weak, and the spirit started coughing again. Within a few seconds, Ryou had been forced back into control of the body again. A trickle of blood ran from his mouth, and the pharaoh wiped it clean.

The footsteps of Yugi's three friends echoed as they approached the hallway.

"There isn't a moment to lose." Yami Yugi announced. His hands shook as they held Ryou. They watched his eyes anxiously, afraid primarily for Ryou' sake.

Yugi's other half cupped his arms around Ryou's trembling body, and lifted him gently off the ground. Ryou gasped, coughing as he felt the pharaoh's hand press against his back.

"What's going on?" Joey asked.

"Yugi?" Tea questioned as well.

"He is very sick."

"What do you mean, very sick?" Tristan growled, his question demanding a response. But no matter how many times he asked it, it never quite amounted to a response.

"I don't have time to explain right now…" Yami Yugi replied.

Tristan's eyes nodded impatiently.

"Get him to a hospital. Quickly. I will meet up with you later." He added, placing Ryou gently in Tristan's open arms.

Ryou coughed again, curling up in Tristan's grasp. He couldn't believe how fragile the boy suddenly felt. He had carried Ryou on his back after the first duel in the Battle City semi-finals, but this hardly seemed like the same person. Now, he was so uncomfortably light. It was unnerving.

"But…" he attempted to interject. Tea brushed the white bangs off Ryou's burning forehead.

"No time for arguing. You must see to it that he gets to a hospital." Yami Yugi repeated again. "I… have to speak with someone first…"

"Come on, Tristan." Joey hurried him along. "We won't let ya' down. And we won't let our bud, Ryou, down neither."

"Right." Tea and Tristan both replied quickly, taking off down the hallway. The ambulance would be pulling up any minute.

Yami Yugi took off running the other direction.


	4. What the Pharaoh knows

Yami Yugi saw the ambulance pulling up to Domino high school as he sprinted down the street. He glanced over his shoulder. Tristan was handing Ryou to one of the doctors, with Joey and Tea huddled tightly behind him.

'Ryou will be getting help' he thought to himself. 'For now at least.'

Suddenly, his hikari's voice rung through his mind.

'Aibou, what's going on? What do you mean help for now? What's wrong with Ryou?'

'There is a lot that you don't know about shadow powers…'Yami Yugi answered timidly as he ran. 'The Shadow realm is a dangerous place…'

Yugi paced back and forth in his soul room, concerned.

'What happened?' Yugi demanded to know.

'Do you remember what happened in Duelist Kingdom, aibou? When the duel with Pegasus became a Shadow Game?'

Yugi nodded silently.

'When we switched back and forth, in order to confuse his millennium eye… You could barely stay conscious in the duel.'

As he spoke, Yugi thought back to the duel. Whenever he was in control of the body, he was fighting spasms of pain from the environment as much as from the duel monsters' attacks.

'That was merely a shadow game, aibou. The Shadow realm is far worse…'

Yugi shuttered at the thought.

'For a spirit banished to the shadow realm, it… it is torment.' He added. 'But for a human body to be sent there… it is far more dangerous.'

'It's…'

'It's something I would never do, aibou. The consequences are devastating. So much so, that I forbid any of my priests to subject even the worst criminals to such a punishment.'

'But Ryou…'

'Aboard Kaiba's battle blimp, when the spirit of the millennium ring lost the shadow duel with Malik's dark side, it was not just his soul that was sent to the Shadow realm, but his body as well. Ryou's body.'

'But it was nearly a week before we were able to defeat Malik's darker side, yami!' Yugi suddenly grew quite concerned.

'I know, aibou…' Yami Yugi sighed. He had tried to work faster, but duels take time. It was, of course, time that they didn't really have. He shuttered as he imagined the pain that Ryou suffered while physically roaming in the Shadow realm. Although, it was likely that Ryou didn't remember any of it. That, he thought, was probably for the best.

'Could Ryou have… died in there?'

'Yes, aibou.' Yami Yugi admitted. 'And that was what I was most afraid of.'

He kept running.

'When I saw Ryou back on the blimp after the duel, smiling as he always does, I was relieved.' He added. 'It appears, though, that I spoke far too soon.'

'He…'

'I'm sure his yami must have protected him as best he could… but something got through that layer of protection… something… something deadly… that didn't affect him at first, but is starting to take its toll on his body.'

'An illness?'

'You could call it that.' The pharaoh answered his hikari. 'But it is not your typical cold or flu… or even what you call a cancer…'

Yugi gulped. Ryou looked dreadfully ill. The thought the he might actually… die… tied Yugi's gentle heart in knots. It left him with a loss for words.

'Yami… where exactly are we going?' he finally spoke up again.

'To the home of the Ishtar clan.' He answered. 'I don't know of a way to stop this kind of shadow force… but perhaps as tomb keepers, his family might…'

Yugi nodded, and the pharaoh sped up his pace.


	5. Waiting

Meanwhile, Tea, Joey, and Tristan found themselves in the waiting area outside the emergency room. Being the middle of a typical day, the room was nearly full. The three friends had pulled some chairs into the corner, to find as much privacy as could be awarded. It had been a good hour since they had last seen Ryou, and as the minutes ticked away, they grew more and more worried.

"… You'd think the doctors would at least let us know what's going on…" Tea moaned, leaning back in the uncomfortable chair.

"Something must be wrong." Tristan sighed. "He's been in there far too long."

"Well, maybe we should just go back there and find out what the hell's goin' on!" Joey shouted, standing up. Tristan pulled him quickly back down.

"That didn't work at Battle City, it's not going to work now." Tristan sneered through his teeth.

"Look, I'm as worried as you, but we can't just barge in… We have to wait." Tea sighed, equally annoyed.

The clock ticked painfully above them.

"Has Yugi not come back yet?" she finally broke the silence, shifting in the chair for the fifth time in a three-minute period.

"I haven't seen him, Tea." Tristan answered.

"Just where do you think he was goin'? What, with Ryou here and all…"

"I'm sure he had some reason…"

"Joey, it was Yugi… There has to be a reason!" Tea announced, quieting her voice when she saw the door across the hall open. "He always has a reason."

A short nurse, clad completely in white, scanned the room as she entered. Her expression sharpened when she saw the three of them sitting in the corner. She quickly walked over.

"Are you the three who came in with the Bakura boy?" she asked gently. Her tone made Tea frightened. It was too gentle… the kind of softness that typically accompanies bad news.

"Yes, we are…" Tristan began.

"What's goin' on? Where's Ryou? Is he okay?" Joey's list of questions failed to change the nurse's demeanor or tone. She merely sighed.

"Please… is he all right?" Tea asked, almost pleading.

"The doctors finally managed to get him stabilized…" she began, trying her best not to make eye contact with either of the three teenagers. "…He is very sick."

With that response, having heard it so often already, Joey was about ready to lose it. Tristan put a hand on his leg to keep him from leaping out of the chair.

"What's wrong with him?" he interjected.

"We're not… completely certain." She answered.

"Not certain! How the hell can you not be certain?"

"Joey, please… that's not getting us anywhere." Tea sighed. "Do you have any idea at all?"

"The symptoms suggest a form of pneumonia. His records indicate that's what he's currently being treated for." She attempted to explain. "But when the tests came back… we couldn't recognize the bacteria."

The moment of silence creaked eerily through the corner.

"What do you mean, you couldn't recognize them?"

"We can't recognize them. They don't appear to be like anything our specialists have ever seen before."

The three friends exchanged uneasy glances.

"What about Ryou? Is there anything you can do for him?" Tristan finally spoke up.

"Right now, we don't know. We've stabilized him, for the time being, and transferred him to the critical care unit. The doctors there are monitoring him. We've flooded his system with antibiotics, but until we know the exact cause of the infection, it will be difficult to administer a treatment."

They nodded silently.

"When… can we see him?" Tea asked, pushing the urge of tears back down her throat.

"Visiting hours start in fifteen minutes and last until five." She replied. "Just go down that hall, and up to the third floor. The critical care unit will be to your right. The head nurse there can show you to his room. Though, you may have to go in one at a time."

They nodded and stood up slowly.

"Thank you…" Tea managed to whisper, before they walked out the door. The nurse smiled gently, and bowed her head.


	6. An Ancient Remedy

The clock above Yami Yugi chimed, a sudden awareness of how little time he might actually have.

Malik Ishtar, along with his older sister Isis, sat on the couch across from the pharaoh. Having recently moved to Domino City, much of their apartment was still covered in boxes. Isis seemed a little concerned over the appearance of her new home, but Yami Yugi was too distraught to even notice the clutter.

"A… a disease from the Shadow realm?" Malik stammered, leaning forward.

"Yes."

He slung his head in his hands, the heavy weight of guilt bearing down on him. It was, after all, his dark side that had sent Ryou Bakura's body into the shadow realm in that duel. It was his Winged Dragon of Ra that apparently sealed the boy's fate. He couldn't bear to speak, yet alone look Yami Yugi in the eyes.

"That's terrible." Isis finally spoke. "Is there anything that we can do?"

"That's exactly what I was hoping…" the pharaoh sighed. "I have some of my memories, but not all of them. I know the dangers of sending a physical body to the Shadow realm. But I don't know how to help someone who has been brought back."

Isis exchanged a glance with Malik, who had just looked up.

"We'll do anything we can, pharaoh." He answered. "Anything."

"I know."

He leaned forward again.

"In your years of passing on tomb keeper traditions, do you know of something, anything, that could help Ryou?"

A twinge of desperation was present in his soft voice.

"I… I don't know of anything…" Malik sighed.

"Wait. There is something." Isis interrupted her brother's grief.

"There is?" Yami Yugi gasped with hope.

"Yes." Isis continued. "I do know of one ritual."

The pharaoh leaned forward, holding his breath, lest any sound, no matter how minute, might obscure the coveted information that the tomb keeper was about to share.

"… A tale was passed down since the ancient times, when Priest Set asked the pharaoh for permission to help in a healing ritual. A scribe had fallen victim to an attack by the great thief king and his ka, Diabound. He had quickly succumbed to an unknown illness…" Isis carefully told her story. "Priest Set had made sacrifices to Khons, a god known for his healing powers. The pharaoh was asked to summon the three great gods, so that they might aid in the healing."

Yami Yugi sat in silence. He remembered none of this.

Malik too, watched his sister intently. If there were any way to undo the damage he had unknowingly caused, he would certainly do it.

"Was it…" he stopped. "Was I successful?"

Isis lowered her head.

"Unfortunately, no. The… The scribe died of his afflictions, before the gods could be summoned. The powers of the shadows had killed him far too quickly."

Malik slumped down again.

"Ra… we're already too late…" he cringed.

"Isis, do you know how long the man was ill? Or how long I waited before agreeing to summon the gods?" Yami Yugi began a series of questions, talking quickly.

"Perhaps a day. I'm not sure." She answered as best as she could. "The stories passed down were quite vague. I don't know exactly."

Malik made an audible sigh.

"How long has he been ill?"

Yami Yugi paused.

'Aibou?'

'A couple of weeks ago, Ryou mentioned having the flu.' Yugi answered after a thoughtful pause.

"A couple of weeks, perhaps." He finally answered the Ishtar siblings.

"We must be too late…" Malik sighed again. His grief was palpable.

"I don't care, we have to try." Yami Yugi interrupted. "Isis, do you know exactly what I had to do to summon the great gods? Do you know what will happen when I do?"

She sat forward, sighing despondently.

"I don't know for certain what will happen, pharaoh. The ritual has never actually been completed. Not as far as I know."

"Do you know anything about it? Something that might help me help Ryou?"

"The stories only say that there needs to be six priests there… Three priests who have been chosen by the great gods to serve as their agents. And three to provide energy for the summoning. It was said that the gods would do the rest of their own accord."

Yami Yugi nodded carefully.

'Do you remember how to summon gods?' Yugi finally broke in.

'I'm… not sure.'

'Well, we know how to summon god cards.'

Suddenly, Yami Yugi jumped forward.

"Yes, I do believe that's it." He said aloud, to the confusion of the Ishtar siblings.

"What's it?" Malik asked.

"The holders of the three god cards. If we summon those cards in combination with the ritual Isis is talking about, we should be able to summon the gods!"

Their faces lit up for a moment.

"But I don't have the winged dragon of Ra anymore." Malik suddenly sighed. "I lost it in Battle City."

Yami Yugi reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out the yellow god card.

"You do now." He smiled, and held the card out to Malik. The tomb keeper blinked with surprise, and then reached out his hand to take the card. "Will you help me?"

"I'll do anything." He nodded, glancing towards Isis.

"So will I."

"Thank you, my friends." Yami Yugi smiled. "Thank you very much…"


	7. Critical Care

Joey, Tristan, and Tea walked through the doors of the critical care unit with worry and trepidation. The walls, a blank white, did little to comfort visitors of the hospitals most troubled patients. The silence surrounding them only emphasized the blank isolation that lay within.

A nurse at a nearby desk looked up when she saw the three teenagers walk hesitantly inside.

"Can I help you?" she asked, looking up from a computer. Her hands kept typing, regardless of where her attention went. The three exchanged a glance.

"We're here to visit our friend." Tea finally spoke up. "Ryou Bakura."

The nurse stopped typing. She picked up a book of patient records, and started flipping through them.

"Ah yes, Bakura. He was just admitted."

The three friends nodded.

"Normally, we only let visitors in one at a time, but since we're not very busy right now, I think I can let you three go in at the same time." She smiled. "As long as you promise to be quiet, and not disturb the other patients."

"We'll be very respectful." Tea smiled back. Tristan, and even Joey, nodded in response.

The nurse gestured to a pair of doors in the back of the room.

"Straight through that door. Bakura's room is the third on the left."

They turned, and followed her instructions. The inside of the critical care unit operated panoptically. A semicircle of rooms surrounded the center station, where doctors busily hustled between the two. A head nurse, meanwhile, could watch over all of the rooms at once. She gave little notice, though, to the three visitors.

Instead, a team of boisterous doctors captured her attention. The group of five specialists stood arguing around a microscope, their papers flying around with their dramatic gestures.

"There it is." Joey whispered, pointing to a room with Ryou's name taped to the door. They ignored the team of doctors, correctly fearing that they were arguing about Ryou's mysterious condition.

"… Poor Ryou…" Tea sighed, while Joey turned the handle and walked slowly inside.

The room was as sterile as the hallway, the dull white walls creating a very uneasy atmosphere. It looked more like a morgue than a place where people come to get better.

They silently slid into the room, so as not to disturb their ill friend.

Ryou lay on the bed, his thin frame draped loosely in a white hospital gown. For the first time, now out of his thick school uniform, the three friends saw how frail he actually looked. His eyes were closed, but he didn't appear to be sleeping.

A small clear tube brought fresh oxygen to his nose, while his chest rose and fell with labored breathing. The machines on his left beeped with each passing heartbeat, the monitor above his shoulder sketching jagged and uneven lines. At the same time, several bags of clear liquid dripped intravenously into Ryou's left arm. One was a nutrient solution. The rest were powerful antibiotics.

A ventilator machine had been wheeled in on his right, but it was not plugged in. Ryou was still breathing on his own, albeit weakly. It's presence, though, indicated that he might need it at any given moment.

"… Ryou?" Tristan finally broke the monotony of the beeping machines. "Can you hear us?"

The white-haired boy blinked wearily, and opened his eyes. He nodded slightly.

They followed quickly with a variety of questions, all at once. But Ryou couldn't understand them.

"How are you feeling?" Tea finally asked, her voice sticking out amongst the other two.

"… I'm… f..fine…" he managed to answer. It was the only response he ever gave when prompted with that sort of question.

He wanted to get up, so he wouldn't seem like a burden. He even tried to get up, but he couldn't muster the strength.

"No, man. You're not." Joey corrected him. "You're in the hospital. In the Critical Care Unit. You're not fine. Somethin's definitely wrong."

"… And the doctors…" Tristan paused. He wasn't sure if he should actually be relaying this information to Ryou. "… They're not sure what's wrong."

Ryou nodded weakly. He knew that already. He just didn't want to admit it. His yami had said it weeks ago.

"… o..okay…" he responded weakly, gasping for breath between his short words. "… I'm… I'm not… fine…"

Ryou turned his head away from his friends, listening to his own breath wheeze through his open mouth. His chest hurt. His head hurt. Everything… hurt. He thought about everything his yami had said to him, everything that they both had willfully ignored. Until now, that is.

"I… I think I… caught some…something… in… in the shadow realm…" he finally admitted, coughing fitfully.

Tea rubbed his chest as he coughed. She cringed as her fingers smoothed over exposed ribs. Eventually, the coughing fit quieted down, leaving Ryou gasping for breath. Tristan and Joey looked on, hardly believing that this was the same happy duelist they saw sitting in Kaiba's kitchen room just a few weeks ago. He was a mere shell of himself, if that.

"…I… I think I'm… going to… to be sick…" he whispered, trying to sit up.

Joey helped lift him slightly, enough for Ryou to vomit an uneasy quantity of clotting blood into a pink basin that Tristan had grabbed from the little table. He coughed again.

Tristan looked at the contents of the pan and fought the urge to vomit himself. The substance looked more like tar than blood, but it certainly didn't look like food.

Tea rubbed Ryou's back a little before Joey lowered him back down to the bed. The white haired boy coughed messily when his back hit the mattress.

"… He is really sick…" Tristan muttered to himself as he put the basin back on the table, trying to ignore its contents.

Ryou closed his eyes again, the beeping of the heart monitor slowing down as his body relaxed slightly.

Tea glanced up at Tristan worriedly.

"… We… we should probably let him rest…" she finally whispered.

Ryou made no acknowledgements that she spoke. Perhaps he actually had fallen asleep.

"You're right." Joey whispered back. He turned his attention to Ryou again. "You rest, buddy… We'll be just down the hall… if ya' need us."

He smiled, hoping it would give the sick Ryou a little enthusiasm.

"That's right…" Tristan agreed, also smiling.

Tea brushed his white bangs from his hot forehead before finally standing up.

"… We'll be back to see you again really soon…" she whispered.

Ryou was asleep by the time they snuck out of the room.

Outside, the doctors were still arguing. Joey closed the door quickly, so that their shouting wouldn't wake Ryou. As sick as he was, he needed to save his strength. Perhaps some sleep would make a world of difference for him.

Already three nurses tried to calm the discussion down, but it hadn't worked.

They simply kept shouting.

As the three teens walked down the hall, they could easily hear the conversation. And their fears were correct. The doctors were fighting about Ryou.

"It can't possibly be a new microbe… What do you mean it doesn't share all of the characteristics of an anaerobic bacterium? What exactly is it!"

"Where did the boy acquire such a disease?"

"Forget that! Is he contagious? Can this microbe be spread? If so, how? And who's already been infected with it? I propose we shut down this entire floor!"

"We've seen no evidence so far that it's spread to anyone except the boy!"

"We've seen no evidence that it's contained either!"

"It doesn't seem to reproduce on its own… but with each sample we took from the boy, there are more and more of these cells in his bloodstream. You explain that!"

"I wish I could!"

"Quiet! Please… you're disturbing the patients…" one of the nurses attempted to interrupt. But she found herself quickly outvoted.

"Get me another sample!"

"What other symptoms does he have? Can we treat them alone?"

"Does it respond to any of the known drugs?"

"We've already put him on vancomycin, a macrolide, and high doses of amoxicillin and aminoglycosides... But it's not having any immediate effect."

"What do you mean it's not having an effect?"

"The microbe seems to be resistant to all of those drugs. If we increase the dosage, they may reach toxicity."

Tea, Tristan, and Joey stood there for a moment, wishing they couldn't actually hear the conversation between the doctors.

"We don't have much of a choice."

"You sound like a bunch of imbeciles! They're almost to toxic levels!"

"Does it respond to radiation?"

"Get a sample down to the lab and find out!"

"Call the government. Maybe this is some kind of agent of biological warfare that got released…"

"We should shut down the whole floor!"

"We don't even know what it is, shut up!"

"You could just as easily be infected with it now too!"

"I've run samples on myself and a few of the nurses that handled the patient. They show no signs of the illness… I don't think it's communicable."

"I want all of you working on this. It must respond to something. Get your assistants busy on the problem right away!"

Realizing that the doctors could probably continue shouting for hours, they finally turned their backs and walked out the door. As they walked, one of the doctors burst loudly into Ryou's room for another sample of his blood.


	8. Yugi Returns

"… Poor Ryou…" Tea whispered, suppressing tears.

Having left Ryou Bakura's private room in the Critical Care Unit, the three friends returned to the waiting room. The number of people had thinned out a little, but not much.

"I didn't realize he was that sick…" Joey added. "Or I woulda done somethin' sooner 'bout it."

"I know." Tristan continued. They had all seen Ryou at school the past few weeks, but hardly anyone questioned his illness. Even their teachers had let the matter slide. "And the doctors have been arguing since before we went in to see him."

They looked up, suddenly spotting Yugi, or was it was his yami in control, entering the waiting room. He was about to walk over to the nurse's station to ask directions when he caught a glimpse of his friends out of the corner of his eye.

"Yug!" Joey shouted, waving him over. Yugi, already looking a bit lost, was relieved to see his friends coming out of the double doors.

"I'm glad I finally found you." He smiled. "I've been wandering around this hospital for half an hour. I… I think I took a wrong turn at pediatrics."

"It's okay. You found us." Joey smiled back, forgetting for a brief moment the sad circumstances of their visit.

"How's… how's Ryou?" he whispered, turning to Tristan and Tea. They had less comforting looks on their faces. "My yami… my yami says something is really wrong…"

Tristan's expression drooped.

"Something is really wrong…" he replied slowly.

"Yugi, you're right. Ryou's really sick." Tea continued, taking her cue from Tristan's silence. "The… the doctors don't know what's wrong with him. And… and he's… Yugi, he's in really bad shape…"

Yugi glanced up at Joey, who had been smiling before. He wasn't smiling now.

"They're right, Yug… He's… he looks awful."

"They have him on all these machines… and medicines. And the doctors are still arguing over whether or not those will even work." Tea added. "They… it's… it's horrible…"

Finally loosing the composure she had kept for so long, Tea let a line of tears run down her face. She buried her cheeks in Tristan's jacket. He simply held her as she started to cry.

"It's awful… He… he can barely breathe. He looks like he hasn't eaten anything in weeks, and when he threw up… it… it was mostly all blood."

As he spoke, Tea cried harder.

"He… he says he thinks he caught it… in the shadow realm…"

As if on cue, Yugi's yami took control of the body.

"He did." The pharaoh answered. "And we don't have much time if we want to save his life."

Tristan and Joey leaned in closer. Tea finally turned around

"What do you mean?"

Yami Yugi's voice quieted to a whisper.

"… We need to talk."

He turned around, and motioned for someone to come in. A guilt-laden Malik, followed by his elder sister, walked slowly around the corner.

Tristan, Tea, and Joey, having not seen Malik since Battle City, were a bit frightened when they saw him walk in. They simply knew him as their nemesis, gifted with the mind controlling powers of the millennium rod.

"Yug… if you're not thinkin' straight… That's the guy that sent Ryou to the shadow realm in the first place!" Joey exclaimed. Tristan jabbed him in the ribs before he could actually shout anything about shadow magic.

"I know, Joey…" The pharaoh attempted to reply.

"I'm sorry…" Malik bowed his head regretfully. "I really am. I… I couldn't control my darker side. But… I'm here… I… I want to help."

Joey was reluctant to accept help from the person that not only hurt Ryou, but also hurt Mai, and controlled his mind for a short period of time. Tristan and Tea, on the other hand, were more than willing to forget the past if there was a chance Ryou would recover.

"What… what do we need to do?" she whispered, drying her eyes.

"I will let Isis fill you in." Yami Yugi answered. "But right now, I need to make one more phone call."

"To who?"

"Kaiba Corporation." Yami Yugi continued, his face stoic. "I need to find Seto Kaiba."

They exchanged confused glances.

The pharaoh walked quickly out of the waiting room, leaving Isis and Malik with the three other teens.

"Please, sit…" Isis began, motioning them towards a set of chairs in the nearby corner. "I believe we have some important matters to discuss."

They nodded, and sat down, listening intently as she relayed everything she and the pharaoh had discussed earlier that day.


	9. The Third Vessel

Meanwhile, Yami Yugi stood at a nearby pay phone, nervously gesturing with the cord as he called the Kaiba Corporation main office.

"I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Kaiba is a very busy man. He will be in meetings all day." The snooty secretary answered. "If you want, I can transfer you to his voicemail."

"You… you don't understand…" Yami Yugi protested.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"This is a matter of life and death. I have to speak with him now."

"Sir, nothing could be more important than his business with Kaiba Corp."

"It is his destiny…"

The woman on the other end of the phone muttered something in the background about 'another loony' calling up Kaiba Corp. For a moment he thought he heard Seto Kaiba's voice in the background.

"Who is it on the phone?" a muffled voice asked.

"Someone claiming to be Yugi Moto." The secretary replied, her voice also muffled. Her hand must have been covering the receiver.

"Give that to me."

Yami Yugi heard the phone being snatched from the secretary's hands.

"What do you want, Yugi... I'm a very busy man." He growled into the phone.

"Kaiba… I need your help." The pharaoh answered.

"You need my help? Oh how amusing. I shall have to mark this day on my calendar."

"Kaiba, we don't have much time to lose. I need you to meet me at Domino City Hospital."

"What are you blabbering on about, Yugi?"

"It's Ryou Bakura. He is very ill."

"And that concerns me?"

Kaiba thought back for a minute. He remembered Bakura. One of the eight semi-finalists at Battle City. The first to be eliminated, to be exact. The one they were trying to get him to land the blimp for, so that he could go back to a hospital, despite the fact that it was Bakura himself who had broken out of one just to compete in Battle City.

"I don't particularly care about your weak friend."

"He is sick from being sent to the shadow realm. He will die if you do not help us."

"And I don't believe in this shadow realm either."

"We need to summon the three Egyptian gods in order to help him. The Obelisk card will not work for us, but it will work for you."

Kaiba perked up at the mention of a duel monster card.

"What's exactly in this for me, Yugi." He sneered. "If you want me to cancel the rest of my meetings for the day, there better be something very worthwhile."

He paused for a minute, hoping Kaiba wouldn't hang up the phone while he thought.

"I will give you your god card back." Yami Yugi finally answered. "Obelisk."

The phone buzzed in the uneasy silence.

"You've got yourself a deal." Kaiba finally responded. The pharaoh breathed an audible sigh of relief into the phone.

He heard Kaiba's muffled voice as he shouted to his secretary to cancel all of his afternoon meetings and reschedule them.

"Where do I meet you?"

"Domino City Hospital. Critical Care Unit." Yami Yugi answered quickly. "And hurry. Every passing moment is critical."

"Whatever…"

The pharaoh hung up the payphone, and walked quickly back inside the waiting room. When he turned the corner, however, all he saw was Isis.

She noticed him immediately.

"Pharaoh…"

He stopped. The expression on Isis' face was disconcerting, to say the least.

"Has something…" He couldn't finish his sentence.

"Happened to Ryou?" she finished it for him. "Yes, they went in just a few minutes ago."

"Is he…"

"No…" she breathed a sigh of relief, already anticipating Yami Yugi's question. "He's not dead. But he is worsening at a rapid pace."

Yami Yugi froze just thinking about it.

"He… he couldn't breathe." Isis continued. "They were forced to put him on the ventilator. When the nurse came out, he was slipping in and out of consciousness. I… I do not know how he shall fare now."

For once, Yami Yugi wished her millennium item were all-powerful. But he knew it had its limitations.

"They said… with the breathing tube in place, he will not be able to talk. But not to let that frighten you."

Yami Yugi nodded, and walked through the double set of doors.


	10. It Worsens

Yami Yugi opened the door to Ryou's room. Everyone else was already inside, so focused on the white haired boy in bed that they didn't even notice him enter.

For the moment, Ryou was conscious, his expression pained with each breath the ventilator forced him to take. His eyes were glazed, a result of the sedatives used when the breathing tube was put down his throat. That is, if the other medication pumping through his system didn't do it first. The nurse was right. This was truly a frightening sight to behold.

The constant beeping, as well as the other noises, added to the already eerie effect. Ryou was indeed worsening, from an affliction that he may not survive.

Two doctors opened the door loudly, brushing Yami Yugi aside. The junior of the two readied another needle, drawing more blood from a vein in Ryou's left arm. The sick teen didn't even notice.

"… Do you know anything yet?" Tristan interrupted the uneasy silence. The doctors looked at each other, and then at the visiting friends.

The elder one just shook his head.

"… Nothing?" Tea sighed, her eyes pink with tears.

He looked around the room, hoping to find the most stable individual to break bad news upon. That individual was obviously Yami Yugi.

The doctor turned to him, and lowered his voice.

"Your friend's condition is deteriorating faster than we can even research the disease…" he sighed, trying to choose each of his words carefully. He knew everyone else in the room was probably hanging on his every sentence. "With every sample we take, the disease has spread… We would need to do exploratory surgery, but…"

He paused. Yami Yugi held his breath.

"… But I don't think his body could recover. And we might not even have the time…"

The pharaoh nodded. Behind him, he could hear Tea start to cry again. As did Joey, although he muffled the sound so that he couldn't be as easily heard. Inside his head, he tried his best not to let Yugi's distraught tears affect his outer demeanor.

"What do you propose to do?" Yami Yugi finally asked.

"We've been trying to put the disease on the defensive, but all known drugs appear to be completely ineffective." He answered, slowly and carefully. "I suppose… all we can do… is… is try to make him comfortable…"

The doctor's voice trailed off, unable to finish the rest of the sentence.

Yami Yugi didn't understand the need to keep Ryou comfortable above all else, but Yugi's sudden wail in the back of his mind reinforced the idea that it wasn't good.

"It's the least we can do…" the younger doctor replied, and walked out of the room. The elder nodded, and also made his exit.

Yami Yugi turned back towards the others.

"We heard everything." Tristan stated, as obvious as it was.

Tea ran her fingers through Ryou's hair, though he didn't give any acknowledgment to her actions. The fever alone made it drenched with sweat, and it stuck messily along his face.

"He hardly looks comfortable…" Malik sighed.

"…That's just doctor codespeak for when someone's about to die, Malik." Joey answered emotionlessly, a hint of anger in his voice.

The tomb keeper lowered his eyes to the floor. He could hardly bear to look at Ryou, lest he start crying. If he could, he would simply drop to his knees and beg for the boy's forgiveness. It was his fault that Ryou was in this state, and if he died because of it, Ryou's life would be on his soul when it is measured against the feather of truth.

"They're just hoping they can find some kind of lead before it's too late…" Tristan sighed. He looked at the pharaoh. "Do… do you really think what Isis said will work?"

"Yeah, Yug… it… it sounds pretty farfetched." Joey added.

"It has to work. There isn't any other way." He answered, lowering his eyes again to Ryou, and his wretched mechanical breathing.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

Suddenly, the door opened again, revealing the Kaiba Corp. CEO. He strode in, hardly glancing at the boy lying motionless amongst the machinery.

"All right, Yugi. Now tell me what I have to do to get my god card."

Yami Yugi shot Kaiba a glance, and then turned back to everyone else.

"Now we can begin."

The gruff CEO stared at the Battle City veterans that had assembled at Ryou Bakura's bedside. It was almost like a duelist reunion.

"What'd you bring me here for, anyway? To see your sickly friend?" Kaiba muttered, finally looking down at Ryou. The boy's unfocused expression stole Kaiba's fury for an instant. The artificial rise of his battered chest, the incoherent beeping of several monitors, and the relentless dripping of useless antibiotics was an overwhelming sight.

"He's… dying…" Yami Yugi reinforced Kaiba's stoic suspicions. "We need your help to save him."

"Let me guess, you want me to write a large check to a research agency." He glanced up, gaining his speech as well as his sarcasm.

"Not exactly." Malik answered.

"We need your help to summon the Egyptian gods." Yami Yugi continued.

"You brought me all the way down here to talk about an ancient fairy tale?" Kaiba replied quickly. "He doesn't need any ritual magic. He needs good doctors. And that's exactly what he has here."

Tea stared at Seto Kaiba, wondering how he could be so cold. The CEO turned away, and started towards the door again.

"Do you want your god card or not?" Yami Yugi finally demanded.

Kaiba stopped.

He did come down here to get Obelisk back. It would be a wasted afternoon if he returned back to Kaiba Corp. headquarters without his prize.

"All right. I'll play your pathetic little ritual game. But it better not take all day." He replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's more like it." Yami Yugi smiled. "I will call for Isis. She will oversee…"

Before he could even turn around, the door to Ryou's room opened again. It was Isis.

"The time has come, my pharaoh." She glanced at Yami Yugi, and then at Ryou Bakura. "I felt it."

"Yes." He agreed. "We must begin immediately. Tell us exactly what we need to do."


	11. The Ritual Begins

Isis stood before the group of friends, all gathered in one place, for the hope of saving Ryou Bakura's life.

What Ryou thought was pneumonia was really a curse from the shadow realm, and within a matter of weeks, he had come so close to death. His body, desperately fighting what it couldn't begin to comprehend, was shutting down. He could no longer breathe on his own, and despite the massive amounts of drugs coursing through his veins, he knew his time was running out. He heard everything the doctor told Yami Yugi. His ears still worked, for now at least.

Everything was blurry, but he could still make out the outlines of the friends he has known since Duelist Kingdom.

He wanted so badly to speak to them, but he couldn't. The breathing tube down his throat prevented talking. And even if it didn't, he wasn't sure he could even string together coherent words.

But they were all there, and he knew they wanted to help him.

'Relax, host.' He heard his yami over the commotion in the hospital room. It was the first time his yami spoke since he was admitted earlier in the day.

'Yami?'

'The pharaoh's got some kind of plan to help you.' He spit, snarling through the title of his arch nemesis. 'I… I hope it works.'

Yami Bakura paced around his soul room. If it didn't work, he would be without a body to inhabit. If it did, he could be accused of showing softness towards the pharaoh or his host. A small price to pay for survival, he reasoned.

'I don't know what they're trying to do… but… I'll help you if I ca... have to.'

"I have never performed this ritual myself." Isis warned, her voice drowning out Ryou's thoughts. "But it has been passed down in the legends of the tomb keeper clan, since the days of the pharaoh himself."

"I'll do anything to help, sister." Malik reiterated, hoping that their plan would succeed.

"While you were waiting for our last vessel, I made many prayers to the gods. Especially to Khons, the moon god. His powers of healing favor those like Ryou, who suffer from the shadow of night, and are in need of light."

"Hey wait a minute." Kaiba interrupted. "Just what do you mean by vessel…"

Isis ignored his outburst, and continued talking.

"Pharaoh, you, along with my brother and Mr. Kaiba, will be vessels of the three great gods. It will be through you that they will work their magic."

Malik nodded, as did Yami Yugi. They would do anything to help Ryou.

"I don't believe any of this cockamamie nonsense." Kaiba added one more time. Again Isis ignored him.

"Whether you believe it or not," Yami Yugi replied. "We need your help, or Ryou will die."

"Whatever. I'd just better get my Egyptian god card back when this is all said and done."

"Isis? Is there anything we can do to help?" Tristan loudly interrupted Kaiba's dry complaints.

"Yeah. Ryou's our bud! We wanna' help him too. Right, Tea?"

She nodded, petting Ryou's shoulder tenderly.

"You three will play an important role as well. In order for the gods to be summoned, a great amount of energy will be required. I need you to provide energy for the gods to obtain physical form."

"Provide energy?"

"Is this dangerous?" Tristan finally asked.

"Yes. It is dangerous. Legend states that many priests who attempted summoning rituals, such as this, paid for it with their lives. I cannot force you to take such a risk if you do not want to."

"Of course we want to." Tristan answered immediately.

"I second that!" Joey shouted triumphantly. "He would'a done the same thing for us."

"The loss of energy may cause you to temporarily lose consciousness. But once the gods have merged with their vessels, you should recover quickly." Isis looked at them, and gave a reassuring smile. "I believe that the gods will not put you in danger, not when you are so eager to help a friend."

They nodded.

"We're ready." Tristan announced for the three of them.

Yami Yugi nodded, and took the other two god cards out of his pocket. Malik was already holding the Winged Dragon of Ra.

"Here, Kaiba." The pharaoh nodded, holding out the blue card of Obelisk. "Your god card."

The CEO smiled, and snatched the card from the pharaoh's hand.

Isis whispered a quiet prayer in Egyptian, kneeling before Ryou's bed, and then standing up again.

"Now, pharaoh, it is time for you to summon the great gods!"

He nodded.

"I summon the Saint god, Osiris!" He shouted, holding his card in the air. A beam of red light shot out of the card, and through the body of Joey. As it passed through him, bursting into a fine mist, he fell into Tristan's lap.

"Joey!" Tristan gasped instinctively, although remembering what Isis had said.

"I summon the winged dragon of Ra!" Malik then shouted, holding up his card. A beam of yellow light shot out of his card, hitting Tristan. Again, it burst into a fine mist, and Tristan slumped on top of Joey. Tea watched as they both lost consciousness, knowing it would happen to her next.

Kaiba seemed unimpressed with what he thought was a little charade, but he followed suit anyway.

"I summon Obelisk, the tormentor!" he shouted, holding his card in the air as well. Blue light passed through Tea, and she slumped on top of Ryou. He winced, the first expression he had made since they entered the room. Isis gently repositioned her in the chair, and leaned her head against Tristan's shoulder.

Malik, Kaiba, and Yami Yugi watched as the fine mist started to surround them. It circled the room, as if it was examining the contents, taking it in slowly, and deciding the best course of action.

"Why have we been called forth?" the three gods asked in unison.

Isis glanced at the pharaoh, for he was the only one with permission to speak directly to gods.

"You have been summoned to help us. My friend is gravely ill." He answered, directing his gaze at Ryou, knowing inside that the gods would follow it.

The mist circled over Ryou.

"We do not meddle in the realm of human affairs. What is the nature of his affliction?"

"This is not a mortal sickness." The pharaoh responded. "It is a sickness from the Shadow realm."

The gods gave no verbal answer, but the pharaoh could feel that they were contemplating it. Suddenly, the mist rushed back towards the three vessels.

"Khons has permitted it."

The separate colors split, striking the chests of the three cardholders.

"Therefore it shall be done."

A burst of light filled the room, forcing Isis to cover her eyes. When she opened them again, Malik, Kaiba, and the pharaoh were donned completely in the armor of the gods. The pharaoh, in Osiris red, the long body of the god circled along his entire torso. Malik in yellow, the wings of the great dragon flowed down his back like a royal cloak. Kaiba in blue, the mighty shoulders of Obelisk gave him the appearance of great strength. Each of them had a sword sheathed at his waist, and a dagger concealed in his left boot.

The remained in that form for only a mere instant, suddenly disappearing from the mortal realm.

A moment later, the three who gave up their energy to summon the gods slowly woke up.

"Did… did it work?" Tristan asked, groggily raising his head.

Tea looked around. The room was suddenly quite empty.

"Isis! Where's Yugi! What happened to them?" she shouted, startling Joey, who was just sitting up. He looked around the room, starting to panic when he couldn't find them either.

"Where'd they go!" he then shouted. "If somethin' happened to 'em… why I oughta…"

"Calm yourselves." Isis whispered. Her tone was reassuring. "They are not gone."

"Where are they?" Tea added, her voice calming tremendously since the last outburst.

She walked over to Ryou, and placed her hand on his fevered forehead. The three friends watched her every gesture. But even they could not be prepared for her response.

"They are inside him…"


	12. Enter the Soul Room

Yami Yugi, along with Malik and Kaiba, materialized in a dark hallway. The walls and floor were made of dark grey stone, and torches lined the wall. It looked like the inside of an old tomb, and smelled just as musty.

"Where the hell are we?" Kaiba announced, looking down at his body. He wasn't sure how, but he was covered in blue armor. "What happened?"

"I… I don't know." Malik also looked down at his hands. A reflection of his helmet shined back at him from the yellow gloves.

Yami Yugi looked around.

"I know what's going on." He stated calmly, running his gloved hand along a stone wall. The uneven stone scratched a thin line in the metal.

"What?"

"We're inside his soul room."

Malik stared at him for a moment. Kaiba just rolled his eyes.

"Soul room? You have got to be kidding…"

Kaiba's disbelief was interrupted by a squeaking door at one end of the hall. Yami Yugi walked over, pressed the thin wooden door with his hand, and it creaked open a little bit more.

The light coming from the small room was so bright, that it lit up the entire hallway. Yami Yugi squinted to see inside. Given the two possibilities, it must have been Ryou's room. It was completely white, and appeared completely sterile, to the point that it almost resembled a hospital room. The source of Ryou's affliction didn't seem to be in there. This appeared, instead, to be a sanctuary from it!

Ryou, however, was not inside.

"Do you see anything?" Malik asked, walking over to the pharaoh.

"Ryou's not there." He answered. "And that's a good sign."

"How exactly is that a good sign?" Kaiba growled, still rather annoyed that he was suddenly standing in a tomblike hallway dressed as a blue knight. Though, he toyed momentarily with the idea of setting up a virtual scenario of a similar sort, and putting it on the market before the next holiday season.

"It means he's still conscious."

Malik looked at the second door as Yami Yugi let the one to Ryou's soul room swing closed. It was a thick metal, and it appeared to be rusted over.

"Is that…"

"That must be where the spirit of the ring resides." The pharaoh answered, not even letting Malik finish his question.

He walked up to the door, and attempted to open it, but it would not budge. Something, most likely someone, was preventing him from opening it. The door itself was laced with a natural barrier.

"Is the source of the curse in there?" Malik asked, studying the metal door.

"I doubt it." Yami Yugi replied. "If it was, the tomb robber would have alluded to it when I spoke with him."

"You believe him?"

"This time only, yes." The pharaoh quickly replied. "His host body may die. That is enough of a reason for him to be truthful. And before you ask. No, I don't think the likes of him would come out of there to help us."

"I don't know what we're standing around here for, then." Kaiba inserted. "What we're looking for obviously isn't here. And if time is really of the essence, I'd suggest we start moving."

The other two paused for a moment, and nodded.

Kaiba turned, and strode quickly down the hallway. The light started to dim. Suddenly, a black hole appeared beneath his feet, and he fell straight through the stone floor. His scream echoed as he continued to descend.

"Kaiba!" Malik and the pharaoh shouted in unison, running after him.

The hole grew, and quickly engulfed the two of them as well. Their screams joined the CEO's, echoing painfully against the lifeless grey stone.


	13. Black

The dark tunnel opened up to another dark corridor. As they crashed into the floor, Malik and Yami Yugi were relieved to find it much softer than the stones they had just come from. Seto Kaiba had already picked himself up off the ground, and was brushing some dew from his armor.

"This was not how I planned on spending my day, Yugi." He grumbled, as the pharaoh slowly stood up.

A faint light illuminated the cavern from above them. The area around them originally appeared to be a dull pink, but it was covered in unnatural black blotches. To his left were two tunnels, one on top of the other. Both of them were jet black.

"Where are we?" Malik gasped, as the black blotches started to move.

"I don't know." The pharaoh answered, his attention quickly drawn to the blotches, which were in reality, thousands of tiny black particles. "But I think we've found what's making him so sick…"

He pulled out his sword, preparing to defend himself. The blade shone like a revealing light.

"What are those things?"

"It looks like what we're after." Kaiba smiled, and drew his sword as well. He ran forward, slashing a few of the particles. When the light beam from his weapon touched them, they vanished instantly.

"That looks easy enough." Malik smiled, and darted towards the small black menaces. He hacked and slashed a good hundred of them before he stopped to breathe.

"Care to give us a little help, here?" Kaiba turned to Yami Yugi, who had been standing back, watching the fight.

"Kaiba, look carefully." He began. "The doctors are right. These germs aren't dividing or reproducing."

"Your point?" he asked, as he slashed again, sending another set of twelve back where they belonged.

"But yet they keep coming. The more you destroy, there always seems to be more to take their place."

Malik looked up. Even though he had killed at least a thousand of them, the area was just as black as it was before.

"You're right… This isn't working…" he finally admitted.

"These are just spores." Yami Yugi gasped. "There must be a source of the infection, somewhere, that is making them. If we could destroy that, then these things would likely all disappear."

"You're right." Malik agreed again. "We could stay here forever hacking at these things, and we wouldn't make any real progress."

"No, even with three of us, we wouldn't be able to hold them at bay. Not to make a difference to Ryou anyway."

He ducked, as a group of a hundred spores suddenly flew at his back. Malik jumped forward, and destroyed them easily.

"Then what are we standing around here for?" Kaiba muttered, slashing at another wave of incoming spores. "Let's keep moving."

Slashing as he ran, Kaiba made a break for the lower tunnel. As he got closer to the tunnels, the spores grew far more aggressive.

"Kaiba!" Yami Yugi shouted, immediately joining in the fight. His beam of light slashed through literally thousands of spores, as he put his heart and soul into every strike.

Malik too, took the other flank, trying to cut a path for them to escape.

"If we can just make it to that tunnel, we'll be safer…" Malik added, dodging a long line of spores. From what he could see, the inside of the tunnel wasn't as black as the cavern they were now in.

Kaiba nodded in agreement.

"We're almost there." Yami Yugi chanted, striking again.

He was about to breathe a sigh of relief, when suddenly, the ground beneath them started to shake.

The pharaoh fell over, unable to keep his balance. Kaiba pulled him up quickly, warding off another attack.

"What was that?" Malik gasped. "An earthquake?"

"I don't know." Yami Yugi answered, trying to get up.

The ground shook again, more ferociously then before, sending all three of them onto their rears. Malik barely got his sword back up in time to protect the other two from yet another attack.

"I don't like this." Kaiba growled.

Before any of them could get up, the ground shook again. And this time, it didn't stop. It only grew worse.

…

Meanwhile, back in the hospital room, Isis paced nervously. It had been a good half hour since the pharaoh and his friends had disappeared. Although she trusted the gods to keep them safe, she worried about their well-being, and about Ryou's.

The boy had already started coughing, despite the breathing tube in his throat. The sound it produced, a dry hacking combined with squeaking plastic, made Isis cringe. It was discomforting, to say the absolute least.

Tristan had lifted him up slightly, while Tea rubbed his back. They hoped that could soothe his pain a little. As he coughed, alarms on the monitors started blaring, his weary body fighting against the steady puffs of air.

"Ryou… please… try to relax…" Tea massaged his back harder. Tears streamed down the white haired boy's face as he tried to silence the coughing on his own. Each spasm in his chest was more painful than the last, and despite the endotracheal tube, he felt like he was completely gasping for breath.

Joey, who had run out of the room to get a nurse, quickly returned with one.

"She'll give him somethin' to make him sleep." Joey announced, bursting through the door. His voice grew softer as he muttered to himself. "God, Ryou… don't give up on us now. Yug's tyrin' to make you better in there."

Tea and Tristan lowered the coughing Ryou down onto the bed, as the nurse administered an injection of morphine. Not only would it suppress his coughing, but also relieve his pain.

"A nurse is here to help you. Just relax." Tristan whispered.

Tea rubbed his shoulder a little, not really knowing what to say.

"Come on, Ryou, you can pull through this." Joey whispered, grabbing Tristan's hand. He could feel it shaking just as much as his was. "I know you can. Yugi knows you can too."

He just hoped that was enough.


	14. Through the Wrong Pipe

It seemed like an eternity before the shaking beneath them stopped.

Kaiba, Malik, and Yami Yugi were still on their backs, swords thrashing in front of them. The black spores continued to swarm around them, keeping them exactly where they were. But their numbers were quickly depleting. Perhaps the three knights were able to make at least some progress.

"I think it stopped…" Malik breathed a sigh of relief. For the moment, at least, the attack seemed to have dissipated.

"Let's not give it time to happen again." Kaiba announced, running quickly for the lower tunnel again.

Malik and Yami Yugi followed without argument. The tunnel was smaller than the cavern, but they could all easily stand up inside it. The farther they moved, the fewer spores there were. For a moment, at least, they found an area not so heavily infected.

Kaiba kept his sword drawn, slashing at any stray spore that happened to slide through the wall of the pink tunnel.

It didn't take long for the tunnel itself to notice they were there, however, and to start pushing them along of its own accord.

"Another earthquake?" Malik asked fearfully, feeling the ground move underneath him.

"No… I think it's something else." Kaiba answered, as the ground beneath his feet rolled. "It's moving us further inside."

"But is that a good thing?" Yami Yugi asked.

"I don't think we really have a choice." The CEO responded, keeping his sword ready for whatever might come next.

The tunnel opened up to reveal a great black expanse, the soft ground literally hanging in thick folds. Kaiba tried to step back as he saw the opening. The tunnel was high above the ground, and said ground looked to be covered in a thick black sludge.

But the tunnel itself forced him forward, and he landed face first into the disgusting mixture below.

"Kaiba!" Malik and Yami Yugi shouted, again in unison, jumping out of the tunnel. They landed on the squishy ground, scattering thousands of angry spores.

"Here we go again." Malik groaned, slashing at them, while Yami Yugi attempted to pull Kaiba free from the tar-like substance.

"This has got to be the worst day of my life." He grumbled, peeling the disgusting mixture from his armor. He couldn't tell what it was, but he knew part of it contained blood from the iron-rich smell.

"There has got to be an easier way to do this." Malik shouted, hacking and slashing despite being overpowered.

Yami Yugi thought for a second.

"I have an idea!" he announced. "Kaiba, hold out your sword."

The other knight shrugged, and pointed his blade at the massive swarm of spores that was surrounding Malik. The pharaoh touched his blade against Kaiba's, watching as a larger beam of light shot out of the combined weapons. It's discharge increasing exponentially, it took out at least a hundred spores. The blast caused the others to scatter for a moment and regroup.

"Malik, are you all right?" Yami Yugi asked, helping the tomb keeper stand up.

"I think so." He replied quickly. "What was that?"

"Two swords are better than one." Kaiba answered with a grin. "And I suppose three are even better."

Malik nodded, and pointed his at the retreating group of spores. Kaiba and the pharaoh placed theirs on top of his, and a powerful beam burst out of the blades. It disintegrated not only the spores they were aiming for, but also those covering the cavern's walls.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Malik exclaimed. "That did some real damage."

"Even so, we'd be better off locating the source of the illness than fighting spores. There will likely be more coming to take their place." Yami Yugi replied, to which Malik nodded.

"And the sooner we get out of this place, the better. It gives me the creeps." Kaiba added, kicking at the tar he landed in. The ground rolled a little underneath him, but not enough to make him lose his footing.

The pharaoh studied the area around him. The soft pink ground, the shaking, the moving tunnel… Suddenly, something made sense.

"Kaiba… do you know where we are?"

"How the hell should I know where we are? One minute we're in a stone room, and the next, we're fighting for our lives."

"… We're inside Ryou Bakura."

Kaiba's expression blanked, and his face blanched. Did Yugi just say what he thought he heard?

"Inside Ryou?" Malik repeated, still not believing it, although it made strange sense. "Then we're… in…"

He looked around. They were in Ryou's stomach. It was completely empty, as though Ryou hadn't eaten anything in a long time. He recalled how drastically thin the white haired boy had gotten since he had seen him at the Battle City semi-finals, and shivered. From the amount of spores clinging to the walls, he wondered if the organ was still functioning.

Yami Yugi nodded, seeing Malik's expression grow all the more concerned.

"It appears as though we went through his esophagus, and ended up here."

"Are you trying to tell me that we're inside Ryou's digestive tract? I find that extremely hard to believe." Kaiba stuttered, attempting to remain in denial of the whole prospect.

Again, Yami Yugi nodded.

"Then the only way out is…" he struggled with his words. "No way, Yugi. Not even for an Egyptian god card."

He sheathed his sword, crossed his arms at his waist, and blatantly refused to continue.

"Kaiba, forget about the card. We're doing this for Ryou." Yami Yugi replied sternly. "He's dying. And this is his only chance."

Malik gulped. He knew what Kaiba was thinking. It was the same thing any sane human being would think about such a prospect.

"This has got to be some kind of trick. A virtual projection. A hologram of some sort." He reasoned.

"No, it is very, very real." The pharaoh interrupted. "Whether you believe it or not does not concern me. But if you stop now, Ryou Bakura will die. It is as simple as that."

His face remained stern, but even the gruff CEO did not want Ryou's death on his conscience. He saw the boy in the hospital bed, how weak and frail he had become in the course of a few weeks. As much as he wanted to deny it, it did tug on his heartstrings, even if it was just a little.

"Fine." He answered, still keeping his stoic expression. "Then let's get moving. The sooner I am out of here, the happier I'll be."

The other two nodded in unison, and quickly followed him out a small opening in the back of the cavern, one at a time.

…

"They've been in there too long…" Joey shouted, pacing back and forth in the hospital room. The beeping monitors echoed his rhythmic footsteps with an unnerving precision.

"I agree." Tristan answered softly, rubbing his hands together nervously as he sat forward in a chair. Every few minutes, he glanced down at Ryou, looking for some sign that the three inside had done some substantial damage to the illness. But he still looked just as sick as before.

Tea didn't answer. Though, from her face, it was easy to see that she was distraught.

"Something must have happened to them."

"I know you are worried." Isis attempted to console them. "But there is nothing you or I can do for them right now."

It was little consolation.

"They are in the hands of the gods. Ra, Osiris, and Obelisk would not allow harm to befall our friends, not when their hearts and intentions are pure."

Tea nodded, hoping that her friends were all right.

At least his coughing fit had subsided. With the narcotic coursing through his bloodstream, he had drifted into an uneasy sleep.

That too was of little consolation to the friends surrounding him. His life still depended completely on the machine breathing for him. And from the uneven spaces on the monitor, the rest of his body could fail him at any moment.


	15. Yami Bakura faces a God

Inside his darkened soul room, Yami Bakura was also pacing. His feet stumbled haphazardly across the stone, scattering coins and other bits of treasure as he walked.

Although he would never admit it, he was greatly worried about his host body. He had known Ryou to be sickly, but this was far beyond any of his expectations. As soon as he had sensed it, he knew this illness was different. But he never thought his host was going to be in a battle for his life.

Part of him even wondered now if he could have done something to prevent it. He paused in his pacing. Probably not, he eventually concluded.

Even if he had remained in control of the body when they were in the shadow realm, Ryou would still have been infected. Mortal bodies aren't supposed to be trapped in the shadow realm. And if they are, they certainly aren't supposed to ever leave it.

As he paced, his foot slammed into a large trunk.

"Damn it all!" he shouted, kicking the treasure chest over, sending pieces of imaginary gold scattering throughout the soul room. "I should have won that duel against that pathetic tomb keeper's dark side. Then this wouldn't have happened! Blasted god card! Fucking Ra!"

Suddenly, a strange blue light appeared behind him.

The tomb robber jumped, the sudden dispersal of the darkness catching his immediate attention.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my soul room!" he shouted, snarling at the strange creature that had invaded his space.

It only took Yami Bakura a moment to realize he was face to face with a god. His already pale skin blanched. Never one to give tribute to the gods during his life, he certainly didn't care much about them in his extended stay in the ring. The only deity he knew he'd ever see was Ammut, the creature who had the pleasure of devouring condemned souls.

But instead, a magnificent creature stood before him. The size of an ancient Egyptian youth, he had the body of a boy and the head of a falcon. On top his head rested a lunar disc, making it clear to Yami Bakura exactly who he had come to face.

"Khons." He gasped, still frozen in place.

The god nodded once.

It was Khons, the god of the moon, a royal guardian angel of sorts, and son of Amun and Mut. In the thief king's lifetime, he was also renown for his gift of healing. The temple priests frequently made sacrifices in his name, as did the pharaoh whom he despised.

"What do you want from me?" he spat at the god, finally finding his composure. Even if he feared the deity, he refused to show it.

"Are you sure the question is not 'What do you want from me?" Khons answered, kneeling before the spirit of the millennium ring.

This confused Yami Bakura more than anything else.

"A priestess has prayed for my intervention." He continued. Khons' mouth didn't move, but Yami Bakura could hear the god's words as if they were literally spoken to him. "And I have come."

"Priestess?" he asked, before it suddenly dawned on him. "Isis. This is part of the pathetic pharaoh's plan."

The god gave no acknowledgement of whether this was correct. But the spirit of the ring assumed that it was.

"Fine. What do I want from you." He sneered, pacing a little, but not taking his eyes off the god.

"My kin are powerful indeed, but they need help." Khons answered, referring to the three great Egyptian gods that the pharaoh had helped summon. "I need a vessel for my powers… and you are a natural choice, as you are already inside the boy. I would need no external power source."

The king of thieves was stunned.

"Do you know who I am?" he shouted at the god. If this were a mere mortal, he would have reached out, taken the creature by its cloak, and yanked it off the floor. If he was in the mood, he might have even snapped its neck. But for a god, he forced himself to keep his rage in check.

"You are Bakura, lone survivor of Kul Elna. The thief and tomb desecrator confined to the millennium ring…"

He couldn't argue there.

"…Who is concerned with the fate of the boy." Khons continued, adding extra emphasis to that last phrase. "And I can help you. Though it poses a grave risk."

Again Yami Bakura couldn't argue. He paused, letting the god continue.

"Obelisk, Osiris, and Ra have fused with the bodies of three mortals. And being mortals, they do not belong here. Should something dire occur, the gods will pull them to safety. Their bodies will be returned to the physical realm." Khons spoke softly. "But you are not mortal. You no longer have a body. You do belong here."

"Your point?"

"Should something disastrous happen, there is nowhere else for you to go."

Yami Bakura thought for a moment. The god was right. Even if he were lucky enough to stay in his soul room, it would only be a matter of time before the disease reached it. But if he didn't act, he would surely die right along with his sickly host.

After a long moment of silence, he finally let out a deep sigh and lowered his defenses.

"Like I care... Just tell me what I need to do."

The god said nothing. With no warning, he burst into a fine white light, and struck Yami Bakura squarely in the chest.


	16. Dangers in the Blood

Meanwhile, Kaiba, Malik, and the pharaoh were forcing themselves through Ryou's small intestine, looking for a way out that didn't involve the traditional exit.

"This had better be worth it, Yugi." Kaiba muttered, swinging his sword as more spores flew from the black walls around them. "I'm finding it hard to think of things more disgusting than what I'm about to do."

Yami Yugi, however, wasn't listening to Kaiba's rant. Instead, he was examining the intestinal wall. The lining resembled a field of soft pinecones, with thousands of fingerlike projectiles. Despite the influx of spores, the large projectiles were still very much alive, and desperately searching for some form of nutrients to take into his blood.

"Wait." He finally spoke.

Malik turned around, still striking spores.

"What?"

"I think I've found a better way." He replied sternly, watching blood flow from behind the wall. The wall was so thin in some areas that they could probably pass right through it. "The bloodstream."

"Is that wise?" Malik asked.

"Blood runs to every part of the body. If the source of his infection is somewhere, this would be the fastest way to find it." Kaiba growled. The pharaoh only nodded.

"Then this is our best bet."

Yami Yugi then tested his theory, stepping into the translucent wall. It was tight around his body, but he squeezed through. Kaiba followed immediately, and so did Malik. They kept their swords drawn, and held over their heads.

They passed through the wall and into the slowly rushing river of Ryou Bakura's bloodstream. The liquid around them was tainted with a black mist. Although they didn't see any actual spores, they had a grave suspicion that the black mist could turn into spores at any given moment.

As small as the three were, they could see the blood cells floating by in the plasma. The red ones were oddly shaped, crooked and flaccid. The few white cells they found were equally deteriorated, beaten and broken by the spores. A couple sunk into the mist, messily dissolving.

It was a devastating sight, and probably one that was happening all throughout Ryou's body.

"No wonder he's so ill." Malik sighed, simply floating along. Yami Yugi nodded.

"His body cannot fight off such an infection on its own. And that is why we're here."

Kaiba simply ignored the friendship speech, keeping his eyes on the rest of the body's tissues as they passed. Behind the wall of the vein, everything looked black. And the further they traveled, the blacker it became.

"Don't get comfortable in here." Kaiba finally spoke. "I think we're about to be in for some trouble."

He pointed up ahead, another organ coming into view. It was so covered with spores, that it had become entirely blackened. And as the blood drew closer, spores filtered into the vein from all directions.

Yami Yugi quickly readied his sword.

"Everyone together!" he shouted, pointing it towards the intruding spores. Malik and Kaiba followed suit, placing their blades over his. The resulting blast of light struck down thousands of spores, but to the knights' surprise, there were at least a thousand more to take their place. And this time, they appeared angry.

"This is bad…" Malik quivered.

How true he was.

Before they knew it, the spores had forced them out of the blood stream, and onto semi-solid ground. The discarded shells of dead white blood cells stuck to their boots as they attempted to fight. Sticking squarely together, they combined their weapons with every attack. But it was having little effect.

"There's just too many of them!" Malik finally screamed, tripping over a diseased outgrowth. He stumbled, scattering another hundred thousand spores as he fell.

"I think you're right." Kaiba admitted, sweat falling from his brow as he tried to protect Malik from the next assault.

Yami Yugi didn't want to say anything, but deep down, he felt as though it was already too late. Every part of Ryou's body was littered with spores. This, his liver, an organ devoted to cleaning toxins from the blood, was almost completely useless.

And the spores kept coming, regardless of how many they struck down.

"What do we do?"

"I… I don't know…" Yami Yugi shouted, ducking under a wave of attacking spores.

His uncertainty did not bode well for their mission, or for their lives.

Suddenly, something in the distance caught Malik's attention.

"Over there!" he shouted, pointing at an incoming artery. Something was moving towards them at an unnerving pace.

"What?" Kaiba glanced up, still hacking and slashing, trying not to be overcome.

Another body ran through the small tunnel, cloaked completely in white armor. It's sword of light raised and swinging, hundreds of spores vanished on contact.

Unlike the three of them, this knight's helmet was without a facemask. When he got closer, the identity of their rescuer came into view.

"Ryou?" Kaiba gasped, his stare agape towards the approaching white knight. His sword alone was obviously more powerful than theirs. His slashing had actually freed a small path.

"Try again, moneybags." The knight replied, attacking the spores that were hovering over the fallen Malik.

"Tomb robber…" Yami Yugi gasped. He could hardly believe his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, pharaoh. I'm saving your asses." He shouted, swinging again. The other three remained frozen, completely stunned. "What are you sitting there staring for? This is my body too! And I'm not about to just sit around and watch it die, all right?"

They nodded, still hardly moving.

"Now. I'd suggest we start moving. We're going to be overrun by those black things in a few minutes if we stay here." He gestured back to the vein they had been forced out of. "I cleared you a path. Now get your bottoms in gear!"

"I know a good idea when I hear one." Kaiba replied, standing up. He brushed off his armor, and started towards the vein. Malik also stood up, and followed suit.

Yami Yugi moved towards Yami Bakura for a minute.

"Thank you."

The thief king just rolled his eyes.

"You think that was hard. You have no idea." He finally replied, before climbing back into the vein with everyone else. "I know this body like the back of my hand. It only gets worse."

Yami Yugi sighed, as he followed the tomb robber. Somehow, he knew that had to be the case.


	17. Breaking under Pressure

"They've been in there too long!" Joey shouted again, gesturing wildly at Isis. He paced up and down the small hospital room, his shoes squeaking as they slid across the floor.

Isis tried to put on a calm face, but inside she was just as torn. Although her millennium tauk provided the power to see into the future, nothing about this matter was clear. Nothing at all.

And the longer they waited, the worse off Ryou seemed to become.

Multiple alarms had gone off in the past thirty minutes, keeping all four of the current visitors on edge. Doctors ran in and out of the room at least once every five minutes, each time more distraught than the last.

Ryou's heartbeat was fast and unsteady. They worried constantly that it would eventually just give out. His fever had also risen considerably, floating at just under 105 degrees. His skin had taken on a yellowish tinge, hinting that his liver was starting to fail as well. It was only a matter of time before everything completely shut down.

"I don't know how much longer I can take this!" Joey continued screaming, still pacing across the floor.

"Look, I know how you feel." Tristan argued, holding his head in his hands, "but shouting certainly isn't helping."

"We're lucky enough that they're letting us stay in here past visiting hours." Tea added, putting another wet compress on Ryou's forehead. With his fever so intense, the last one dried almost instantly.

Outside, Joey could hear the doctors arguing just as much. And he didn't like the sound of it.

From their latest sample, they knew the infection had left Ryou's immune system severely damaged. Should he make it through this, as unlikely as that was, chances are, that he would succumb to the first opportunistic infection that crossed his path.

"Where are they? Where are they!" he shouted again, kicking the floor in disgust. "We should be in there helpin' them, not sittin' out here watchin' our buddy die!"

"He's not going to die, Joey!" Tea finally shouted back, tears streaming down her face.

"I know this looks bad…" Tristan tried to interrupt, but couldn't find the right words.

"I can't take this anymore!" the blonde haired teen pushed the door open, and stormed outside. The door clattered on the other side of the wall before flying shut again.

"Joey! Wait!" Tea called out, rushing after him.

Fortunately, the doctors were creating enough of a scene on their own. The two teenagers could hardly be called a distraction.

Tea ran out into the waiting area, where she caught up with Joey. By the time she got there, he was standing at the corner, his back towards her.

"Joey, please…"

He refused to turn around. He feared for a moment that she would take his cold shoulder personally, but in reality, he just didn't want her to see him cry. She had cried enough as it was for Ryou. He didn't want her wasting any tears on him.

She walked slowly up behind him, and put her hands on his shoulders. She could feel them shake with pent up grief, as he tried to wipe the tears off his face.

"It's okay, Joey…" she whispered. "Go ahead and let it out."

She pulled him into a hug.

"I… I don't understand, Tea." He finally spoke. "Why Ryou?"

She watched the tears form in the corners of his brown eyes. They shimmered in the waiting room's stark artificial lighting.

"Why Ryou? Why not any of us?" Joey sighed. He clenched his fists as his mind raced through dozens of different thoughts all at once. "It's not fair! He didn't deserve it, you know! He's been through enough already! Why this?"

"I don't know…" she tried to answer. But she knew she couldn't. There just wasn't an answer for something like that. And she wasn't about to try and make one up.

"It's just not fair…"

"Life's not fair… is it…"

She just held him as he cried. Together, they both cried.


	18. The Heart of the Matter

With his yami now leading them, the four knights swam quickly through Ryou Bakura's bloodstream. They weren't too sure where he was leading them, but they kept their swords ready anyhow, knowing that spores could break through at any time.

"I hope you know where you're going." Kaiba muttered, now bringing up the rear. It was obviously a position he wasn't used to taking.

"I told you already. I know this body like the back of my hand." He shouted, turning around only briefly to snarl at the CEO.

As they floated closer, they could see their destination. It was Ryou's heart, covered in thousands, perhaps even millions, of spores. The valve ahead of them opened and closed erratically, mimicking the actions of the heart itself. They could feel the rapid heartbeat rattle their armor. It felt so fast, that they feared it might literally explode.

"This doesn't look good." Malik gulped. Everyone else nodded an assent.

"We don't have much time to waste." Yami Bakura shouted, pointing his sword at the main valve. Before its light could even discharge, an attack wave of at least five hundred spores flew straight at them. They dodged out of the way just in time.

"You're not kidding." Yami Yugi added, slicing them as they flew by again.

"Let's blow these spores back to the shadow realm!" Malik shouted, tapping his sword with Kaiba's. The blast freed up the area around the valve, but more spores quickly took their place.

The three blasted together, but it still was not enough.

"There must be a more efficient attack…" Kaiba growled, but he couldn't think of one.

"Get moving!" Yami Bakura interrupted his thoughts.

"What are you talking about?"

"I said get moving!" he shouted again, repeating himself. "Make your biggest blast and run for it! I'll cover you!"

The other three glanced at each other, and then back at Yami Bakura.

"All right." Yami Yugi nodded, holding his sword out. "This one is for Ryou! Guys, channel all your heart into your swords!"

"Right." Malik added his sword to the attack, as did Kaiba. They could felt the swords vibrating along with their intentions.

The resulting blast disintegrated thousands of spores on contact. They held their position for a moment, before the spirit of the millennium ring started yelling at them to run.

The knights leapt through the valve into the closest ventricle, followed quickly by Yami Bakura, slashing as he threw himself backwards through the opening.

"They're still coming…" he gasped, rolling back to his feet despite the ground bumping unsteadily underneath him. "I'd suggest we keep moving!"

The other three nodded, each heartbeat sending them flying up and down.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Malik asked, slashing at the slew of incoming spores.

"To the place where this whole mess started! Where else?"

"And just where would that be?" he asked again. He looked ahead. The valve to the right ventricle was open.

"He was first diagnosed with pneumonia a couple weeks ago." Yami Yugi stated rather calmly.

"The lungs." Kaiba answered, glancing to Yami Bakura.

"You got it."

He took a giant step forward, and then stopped. They all paused.

The ground beneath them had stopped moving.

And that meant Ryou's heart had stopped beating…


	19. Pushed Away

The hospital room suddenly fell silent.

The erratic beeping fell into a long empty tone, crashing the last remaining hope that Tristan had left.

"No Ryou! NO!" he shouted, shaking the now lifeless boy. His chest still rose and fell with steady mechanized breaths, but everything on the monitors were falling flat. "No! You can't do this to us!"

"Oh, Khons… Oh Ra… Oh Osiris…" Isis muttered the name of every deity she could think of.

The door slammed open, and a team of doctors rushed in, pushing Isis and Tristan out of the way.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave."

Tristan heard the words being spoken, but he didn't know where they came from or who said them.

"No! I won't leave him!"

"I'm sorry, you have to leave." Another doctor shouted. Tristan tried to keep his eyes on Ryou, but medical personnel had already surrounded him.

"Get a defibrillator in here right now!" another screamed over the added commotion. "Move! Move! We're wasting valuable seconds!"

Before he knew what was going on, Tristan found himself outside of Ryou's room, staring at a closed door, and listening to the muffled sounds of arguing doctors. He couldn't make out much of what they said, although the phrase, 'We're losing him' stuck uncomfortably in his mind.

Isis placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but it couldn't do much, especially when Tea and Joey walked into the hallway again.

They took one look at Tristan and Isis, and nearly lost all sense of composure.

"What's happening? Why are you out here?" Tea gasped. Her knees rattled as she thought of at least a million things that could have gone wrong inside the room.

"What's wrong!" Joey shouted, dashing up to Tristan, as though clenching on to him would stop this inane nightmare. He looked up, only to see tears sliding down his friend's cheek. They splashed messily onto his jacket, sliding towards the floor.

"Is he…"

"The doctors pushed us out…" he tried to speak, but a lump rose in his throat. "His… his heart stopped."

Tea froze, tears swelling behind her closed eyelids.

"No!" Joey shouted, pushing Tristan into the wall. "Don't say that! Don't lie to me!"

Isis tried to pull Joey off his friend, but to no avail.

"Don't lie to me! Ryou's fine! You're… You're just pullin' my leg! I don't believe you!" he screamed, slamming Tristan's back into the wall again. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Tristan couldn't bear to look his friend in the eyes.

"I'm not… he… his heart stopped." He managed to finally answer, before Joey let him go. The punk dropped down to the floor, sobbing with his head buried deep in his hands.

"But what about Yugi… and… and…" Tea attempted to ask.

"They are still inside him." Isis answered.

"But…"

"I don't know what has happened to them." She sighed. "I can only hope that they are all right. That the gods are protecting them."

But the trembling in her voice made it clear. There was a possibility that Ryou was already dead. And that inside of him, their three friends had met the same fate. It was a thought that no one wanted to consider.

"No… This can't be happening…" Joey sobbed. His screams echoed all of their feelings. "This can't be happening!"

They huddled together outside of the room, and not able to do anything else for the time being, waited.

…

"Oh shit…" Yami Bakura froze, feeling the long empty pauses where heartbeats belong. The unpumped blood cooled around his feet. He didn't know what to do next.

The mass collection of spores didn't seem to know what to do either, as they too were frozen in place.

"He's… dead…" Yami Yugi gasped, his voice quivering.

Malik bent down, and felt the soft cardiac tissue beneath his feet. It was warm to the touch, overworked and exhausted.

"It can't be…" he stuttered, as he looked back up.

For once, Seto Kaiba failed to muster a sarcastic comeback. He was too overcome with shock.

Yami Bakura looked down at his own hands. He wasn't sure why he was still here. Was it because of the god's powers infusing him? If Ryou were dead, he would have likely been sucked back into the ring by now, trapped until the next destined host should arrive.

"Did we just… fail?" Malik asked. He sheathed his sword at his waist, and looked around.

If they did, were they doomed to remain inside Ryou's body? Or were they instead doomed to return to their lives, with the knowledge of their failure trapped permanently in their minds. Malik wondered, for a moment, which would actually be worse.

The silence around him was deafening.

Each second felt like an eternity.

"…I… I…" Yami Yugi finally attempted to speak.

But he was cut off by a powerful wave of electricity, shooting into the ground below him.


	20. A Sigh of Relief

"Clear!" one of the doctors shouted, as another pressed two defibrillator paddles on Ryou Bakura's chest. A shock coursed through his body, forcing an involuntary jerk.

"Still no sign of a pulse." One of the nurses shouted over the background commotion.

"Keep going. There's still a chance we might be able to bring him back." The head doctor ordered, although he knew, in the end, it was probably a lost cause.

There was a chance, if they could reestablish a heart beat in the next couple of minutes, that he would be resuscitated. It was unlikely though, even if they did, that he would survive through the night.

"Clear!"

The paddles shocked him again. Ryou's body jerked uncomfortably on the bed.

"His heart is still not responding sir."

"Again."

"Clear!"

…

Another wave of electricity shot through Ryou's cardiac tissue, this time forcing the four knights to their knees.

They attempted to get up, only to be knocked aside again by a faint heartbeat and a small rush of blood.

"Oh, ra…" Yami Bakura sighed in desperate relief. He let out the breath he didn't even realize he had been holding.

Ryou's heart was beating. It was not beating well, but it was beating nonetheless.

"We still have a chance." Yami Yugi announced.

Malik nodded with a sense of renewed vigor. Even Seto Kaiba seemed relieved.

"Not a very long one." He added. "If we plan on saving your little friend, we'd better keep moving."

He stood up, feeling the blood surge around his knees. Despite the uneven motion, he managed to keep his balance.

"I agree." Yami Yugi nodded, climbing to his feet as well. He unsheathed his sword, and pointed it at the surrounding spores. The tiny germs, sensing the sudden reanimation of the infected boy's heart, also returned to their onslaught. And they had just as much determination as the four knights.

"They're coming back!" Yami Bakura shouted. He barely had enough time to warn them, let alone strike, so he dove into the small pool of blood. They passed over him as the other three knights readied their weapons.

"This isn't over yet!" Malik screamed, running at the oncoming wave of spores. His renewed energy fueled his weapon, and it slashed through at least fifty spores on the first strike.

Yami Yugi did the same, joining his blade with Kaiba's for a more powerful attack.

Rolling out from under the blood, the spirit of the millennium ring joined the fight on the other flank. His blade took out a good portion of the next group of spores.

"We don't have time to waste here." He growled, slashing his way towards the pulmonary artery. He could feel the burning sensation in the pit of his chest. His host body was on borrowed time now. The ground beneath his feet rolled slowly and erratically. It was weak. And it could stop again at any moment.

The other three agreed, striking what spores they could while following Yami Bakura's open path.

"I'm not just going to let him die, you know…" he muttered under his breath, climbing through a damaged valve. Of course, it wasn't loud enough for any of the others to hear.


	21. Barring a Miracle

The door to Ryou's room opened.

One of the younger doctors walked into the hallway. Tea, Tristan, Joey, and Isis were still huddled against the wall, hoping against hope that Ryou was still alive behind it. They glanced up when they heard the door creak.

"Is… is he…?" Tristan tried to speak, but couldn't find any more words.

Tea muffled a squeak, burying her face in Joey's shirt. He rubbed her back sympathetically as the doctor drew a long silent breath.

"Well?" Joey asked, growing quickly impatient. "Is he…"

No one could finish that sentence for fear of the obvious ending.

"We've managed to get a heartbeat." The doctor finally answered, after the long pause. The relief the friends felt was certainly palpable. They jumped into each other's arms, shedding their captive tears of joy.

"Thank goodness…" Tristan managed to say, clasping his arms around Isis.

"That's wonderful." Joey added, looking up from Tea's embrace.

The doctor, however, looked less than enthusiastic. And his stoic demeanor quickly drew the teens out of their celebration.

"Is… is it not wonderful?" Tea managed to whisper.

The doctor looked behind him, at the team that was still currently surrounding Ryou Bakura's bed. He closed the door gently.

"We've managed to get a heartbeat…" he repeated, his voice quieter. "But we don't know how long we can keep it."

The friends glanced at each other briefly, and then let their eyes fall to the floor.

"But… for now?" Tea asked.

"For now, we have a weak pulse."

Tea nodded. She watched the doctor fidget with the pen in his hand. There was more bad news, news that he probably regretted having to break to people so young. He tried his best not to make any eye contact, instead settling for staring at a loose scrap of fabric hanging out of Joey's jacket.

"Ryou Bakura… probably won't make it through the night." He finally admitted. "Bodily systems are already starting to shut down. Liver function, kidneys… Brain function is also fading… He's slipped into a coma."

They gasped.

"Is… is… there… there any ch... chance… that… that maybe…" Tristan stammered, attempting to find something for his hope to grasp on to. The doctor just shook his head.

"The latest sample revealed…" He couldn't finish his sentence.

"Revealed… what?" Tristan gasped.

"… It's black." He answered, unsure of his words.

"What do you mean, it's black?"

"The sample… the bacteria have a black color. It was so widespread in his bloodstream, there was little else but black." He continued, pausing between each phrase as he tried to explain that which he still didn't understand. "We've never witnessed the germs reproducing, but… through all of our best efforts… we can't find a way to stop the growth of the infection."

Had the friends possessed any more tears to cry, they probably would have burst at that very instant.

"We've added another course of antibiotics, and immune system boosters… but it is only a last resort." The doctor sighed. He made the mistake of looking up, and catching eye contact with Tea. The pain and regret glossed over her blue orbs sent chills down his spine. He struggled to maintain his stoic composure. "The medicine itself is at an almost toxic level in his system, but it still has absolutely no effect on the disease… and even if it started to work now… It's far too late…"

A ghastly silence fell over the hallway.

"He's at a point beyond which he could physically recover…"

The statement resonated in their minds for what felt like an eternity. Barring even a miracle, it was too late…

This was it.

Despite their best efforts, and that of the great Egyptian gods, the curse of the Shadow realm had won. Ryou Bakura was going to die.

"Can… can we… at least see 'im?" Joey eventually whispered, his throat dry and ready to crack. His voice had lost all threats of anger and violence, reduced to only grief. "He's… he's our bud…"

The other three nodded, and the doctor bowed his head a little. He opened the door.

The teens waited while the medical personnel filed out of Ryou's room like an early funeral procession. They kept their eyes along the floor, not wanting to admit to themselves or the suffering friends waiting by the doorway that they had failed. The infection, still a mystery to them, was going to claim one life. In the back of their minds, even though they had seen no evidence of it spreading, they feared it would eventually take more.

"He… he won't be able to answer you. And you won't be able to tell if he is listening… But he might be able to hear you." The young doctor added, holding the door open as the young friends walked solemnly into the room.

"… Thank you…" Isis eventually whispered. "For all that you have tried to do."

It was the least that anyone could say.


	22. The Source of the Infection

Meanwhile, Yami Yugi, Malik, and Kaiba, along with the spirit of the millennium ring, reached a fork in their path. The pulmonary artery, upon reaching the lungs, had split into two branches. It was clear that they had reached the source of the infection. Spores clogged both pathways.

Blood trickled along their feet as they ran, hacking and slashing anything they could see.

Yami Bakura and Malik verged to the left, spores surrounding them in all directions. Kaiba and the pharaoh turned to the right, towards the bigger lung. There were just as many spores, vehemently lunging at them in ever increasing numbers.

"This is unreal…" Malik gasped, combining swords with the tomb robber. The powerful discharge blew a hole in the front big enough for them to walk forward only two more steps.

"We can do this! We have to do this!" he shouted back, angrily. "Dammit, Ryou. You are not going do die on me!"

Malik paused in his attack briefly.

"What are you looking at, tomb keeper?" Yami Bakura snarled, realizing that he had said his thoughts aloud. "It's your fault we're in this fucking mess."

The insult threw Malik back into his next attack.

"They just keep coming." Kaiba added, swinging again at a group of spores that dodged his last attack.

"I know." Yami Yugi replied. He felt momentarily calmed by the blood rushing at his ankles. It was evidence that Ryou Bakura was still alive for the time being.

The pair continued to push their way into the right lung, still hoping they had enough time to defeat what might be hiding inside.

"Do you honestly think we have a chance?" Kaiba eventually sighed. For the moment, he had accepted these surroundings as real, and was starting to become quite concerned. "Have you given any thought to what would happen if your friend were actually to die with us inside him?"

The pharaoh just shook his head.

"No. I haven't." Yami Yugi answered, taking down another group of spores. "But we have to have faith in the power of the Egyptian gods…"

"Yugi, I saw Ryou in that hospital bed." He began slowly, still attacking as he spoke. "I know you feel bad over what happened. Anyone would. But don't you think it's a lost cause?"

Yami Yugi let the thought enter his head, and he quickly tried to shove it down.

"No, Kaiba. I won't let that…"

"Even if we do win, his body is ravaged by disease. He's not likely going to survive."

Yami Yugi froze again, tears streaming down his cheeks. It was an alien feeling. He could hardly remember the last time he cried. Perhaps it was for Yugi.

'Yugi.' He whispered through his link.

'Yami, don't listen to him!' Yugi shouted back. His quivering voice sounded as though it had been crying since they entered Ryou's body. It very well may have been. Yami Yugi had ignored it up until now, his mind focused solely on another task. 'You can't listen to him!'

'I… I don't want to… but… but he's… he's right…'

'No! I won't let you believe that!' Yugi replied sternly. "Ryou's my friend. And I'm certainly not going to give up on him any time soon…'

"Pharaoh!"

Yami Yugi snapped back into the present, his sword clashing with another group of attacking spores. The mental pep talk was interrupted by the echo of Yami Bakura's screech. "This way!"

Kaiba and Yami Yugi exchanged a quick glance, and then turned quickly around.

The spores, sensing their movement, gave chase.

"Come on, Kaiba." He smiled, and handed his sword to Kaiba. He could feel Yugi's head nod. "We still have a chance. Watch my back."

Yami Yugi dashed forward. As much as he detested the tomb robber, he trusted him this time. He and Malik had likely found the source of the infection.

"Hurry!" Malik cried, pushing them to move even faster.

Kaiba, running backwards with both weapons, kept the oncoming spores at bay until they could cross over into the other lung.

"What did you find?" he asked grimly, turning around only when the area was clear of black particles.

The inside of Ryou's left lung spread out before them like a dark cavern. A rush of humidified air ran over their backs, clinging to them like a bad premonition.

The walls and floors were lined in black. And layers of spores resting on top of more spores were only the first cause for alarm.

Where the main tunnel broke into thousands of smaller ones, a gigantic bulbous entity appeared. Like a large black jellyfish, massive tentacles stuck out in every direction. It vibrated with every mechanized breath, beating and pulsating. New spores poured out of its surface at an astonishing rate, and Malik and Yami Yugi had already started fending them off.

"What do you think, moneybags?" Yami Bakura announced. "It's exactly what we're looking for…"

…

Isis stood near the window. The sun was starting to set.

Although she didn't want to frighten the others, she was worried about her brother, the pharaoh, and the Kaiba Corp. CEO. They had been inside Ryou for hours, and with each passing minute, there was a greater and greater chance that they would not come back. That chance was even greater for Ryou, who was merely toddling around the gates of Osiris. A few more steps, and he would likely be in Anubis' care.

Tea, Tristan, and Joey leaned over Ryou's bed.

The boy was completely unresponsive, his head resting at a crooked angle. The only signs of life came from the beeping monitor and the ever-functioning ventilator. His pulse was weak and unsteady. Alarms went on and off as the machines attempted to compensate for Ryou's downward progression.

"Ryou…" Tea whispered. She put another wet washcloth on his forehead. His fever had managed to push even higher, but given his prognosis, the doctors were no longer very concerned. She doubted the washcloth would actually do much good, but the feeling of doing something, anything at all, seemed to act as meager consolation.

"Come on, Ryou…" Tristan whispered as well.

He squeezed the pale boy's hand, cringing as he felt Ryou's small bones rub against his palm. His hands seemed so tiny and frail as they hung limply from his bandaged arms. A little blood from the last sample pooled on the sheet below. It was dark, almost completely black.

Joey would have grasped the other hand if he could, but it was surrounded in so many wires. He did not dare touch it.

Instead, he just sat watching Ryou's thin chest rise and fall.

"Come on, Yug… What's goin' on in there?" he sighed. "Are you all right?"

Tea looked up when she heard the mention of her other friends.

"Of course… they're all right." She managed to answer, choking as she spoke. "They have to be."

"That's right." Tristan added. "They're still in there. Fighting strong. I… I know they are."

Joey tried to nod, but he could barely move as it was.

"Right." He whispered, slowly letting his voice gain more confidence. "Right. They're still in there fightin' for Ryou!"

Tristan squeezed Ryou's hand a little harder.

"You hear that, Ryou?" Joey exclaimed. He shook the bed frame as he spoke. "They're still in there. Fightin' for ya'. They're not gonna' give up until they've beat whatever's in there."

Tea nodded, stroking the boy's lifeless face.

"You just wait an' see." Joey announced confidently, although starting to trail off. "Yeah. Just wait an' see. Yug'll save you."

Tristan and Tea nodded.

Isis merely prayed to Anubis, that perhaps he would leave Ryou waiting at the outside of the gate just a few minutes longer.


	23. Fighting for their Lives

Malik and Yami Yugi froze. The spores suddenly stopped.

"Did we just…?" Malik began, but was quickly cut off.

"Nothing is ever that easy." Kaiba interrupted.

"You call what we've done easy?"

"He's right." Yami Bakura came to the defense of the CEO. "It's not finished with us. I can feel it."

The shadow creature could easily sense the approaching knights. It may not have known exactly what they were, but it knew they were a threat. It also knew that the spores had, so far, been ineffective at stopping the invading attackers. But the parasitic beast was just as determined not to give up it's new home.

As they all feared, the source was also capable of defending itself in other means.

Before they knew what to expect, a series of tentacles jutted out of the smaller bronchial tubes.

"Look out!" Yami Bakura shouted, diving and rolling to the side, his white armor clattering against itself.

By the time he came to his feet, a black tentacle had almost surrounded the blue knight.

"Kaiba!" Yami Yugi shouted, as the creature grabbed him. As soon as the tentacle hit his armor, waves of pain rolled through his flesh and bones. His body convulsed, his sword falling to the ground. The light went dark as soon as it left his hand.

His agonizing scream echoed through the entire lung.

"Kaiba!" Malik gasped, frozen in shock at the sound of his pain.

Yami Bakura too stared in disbelief. This creature could very well kill Kaiba within a matter of seconds. And it could do the same to any of them. He couldn't focus on Kaiba's predicament for long, however. Another tentacle was already lashing out at him.

The thief king dodged it, parrying it with his sword. To his surprise, the light didn't cause the creature to disintegrate. Instead, the source struck back, using the tentacle like a blade.

"I can't get to him!" Yami Bakura shouted, now louder than Kaiba's hoarse voice. He knew if he took his eyes off the black appendage for even an instant, he would be in the same position as the CEO.

Before the spirit of the ring could even finish that thought, Yami Yugi already leapt forward, slicing the tentacle with Kaiba still attached to it.

He fell to the ground, his body still quivering and shaking. Other than that, he made no movement.

The creature, wounded for a moment, pulled its severed tentacle back. The broken piece burst into a black mist.

"Kaiba!" Yami Yugi shouted, lifting the blue knight from the ground. "Kaiba! Are you all right! Speak to me!"

While Yami Yugi tended to the injured knight, Malik covered him. The creature didn't waste a moment before launching another couple of tentacles towards them, and he did his best to keep them away from the pharaoh.

"Kaiba, wake up, please!" Yami Yugi shook his body again. The blue knight wearily opened his eyes, gasping as he drew a staggered breath.

Seto Kaiba froze. His entire body vibrated with a dull ache. He could still feel the creature's tentacle stinging his midsection, even though it was no longer there.

"Are you all right?"

"What… happened…" his gruff voice squeaked as he tried to talk.

"I'd imagine you just felt what Ryou's been feeling inside of him since Battle City." Yami Yugi answered.

Kaiba thought about that for a moment before suddenly remembering where he was. The sight of Malik in yellow armor, getting pushed back by the invading tentacles, was enough to jog his memory.

"… Malik…" he stood up, and reached for his sword. It was on the ground, guarded by several tentacles.

Yami Yugi spotted it, and tried to reach for it. He slashed at the creature, but it wouldn't back away. And new tentacles wriggled their way up into the tunnel.

"A little help here!" Yami Bakura screeched, now having taken out his dagger to fend off a second tentacle.

"I'm tied up over here too!" Malik added. He glanced at Yami Bakura for a moment, and almost paid the price for the distraction. "I can't get away!"

Yami Yugi watched as the injured tentacle flopped weakly on the ground.

"When I cut Kaiba free, one of them was severed!" he shouted. Also with dagger in hand, he slowly crept forward. He kicked Kaiba's sword towards Malik, who was still protecting the injured fighter. The tentacles struck the swords, almost knocking them out of Yami Yugi's hand.

"What'd you do differently?" Malik shouted.

"Yeah! Spill it, pharaoh!" Yami Bakura screamed. A third tentacle had made its way straight for him, and he was starting to lose his footing.

"I didn't do anything differently!" he shouted back, slashing in front of him. "The only thing that was different was…"

He paused for a moment.

"Tomb robber! Let it catch you!"

Yami Bakura nearly tripped over his own thoughts.

"Why the hell would I do something that stupid!" he screamed.

Yami Yugi fought his way over to the thief king.

"Just do it. Watch!"

The white knight rolled his eyes. He could scarcely believe anyone would take such an idea seriously. He hated to trust the pharaoh, even in a situation like this.

He didn't have to take it seriously, though. The tentacle Yami Bakura had been dodging whipped around faster than he had anticipated. It wrapped itself around his leg, pulling him off his feet instantly.

He screamed in torment as it made contact with the armor. The pain was intense. The only experience he could even relate it to was being burned by the fires of Obelisk during his original lifetime.

Yami Yugi quickly cut him free.

As he predicted, his sword severed the tentacle. The creature inched back a few inches, squirming in obvious pain.

The tomb robber sat up, blindly swinging his blade at the other two tentacles he was fighting. Fortunately, with the strike, they too had retreated a bit.

"… What the hell?" he gasped, dropping the dagger and grabbing his leg. He could feel it burning through the armor.

"It's just as I thought!" Yami Yugi shouted. "It's not actually part of this realm. If it touches one of us directly, it makes itself vulnerable."

In the spare moment, Malik turned to Kaiba. The CEO was standing, but still stunned from the attack.

"You okay?"

He nodded, still feeling the burning sensations through his skin. He shuddered. Through it all, he could almost feel as though his body were being pulled out of existence. Either the force of Obelisk was trying to protect him, or the shadow creature almost succeeded in killing him.

"I'm not infected, am I?" he turned to Yami Yugi, finally speaking.

"Doubtful." He replied. "It didn't get inside of you. It only touched your armor."

"Good."

Yami Bakura slowly made his way to his feet, leaning on his sword. A little blood trickled around his feet.

"So one of us needs to be bait." He growled, watching as the creature started to prepare for another attack of its own. "I volunteer…"

Yami Bakura paused. He wanted to volunteer Kaiba. It seemed logical. Not only did the creature already injure him, but the tomb robber also didn't particularly like him very much either. Kaiba reminded him too much of a high priest that was close to the pharaoh. Had the pharaoh been the one injured, he probably would have volunteered them both, killing two birds with one rock, so to speak.

But the fact that time was of the essence stopped him. Kaiba would have argued, and even more time would be wasted in something so petty. And his host body could likely die at any moment.

"I volunteer… myself…"


	24. Now or Never

"I volunteer myself…" He repeated the words inside his head. When he turned around, he realized that everyone was staring at him.

They continued to stare.

"What?"

Even the pharaoh was stunned.

"You…"

"I volunteer myself. What, have you got spores in your ears?" Yami Bakura repeated, not entirely sure why he was so adamant about causing himself more pain. Or doing the very thing that Khons warned him against.

Yami Yugi placed his hand on the white knight's shoulder.

"Are you sure, tomb robber?" he whispered. His voice almost sounded concerned.

Yami Bakura nodded.

"Ryou doesn't have much time left. And that means neither do I." He sighed. "Here. Take my sword. I want you to jam it through that thing's fucking heart. Or whatever the hell it has in it."

"I will." He replied quickly. "With pleasure."

Yami Yugi took the sword, offering a smile to the tomb robber. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, the thief was doing something extremely honorable.

"You… you won't have long once it takes me." He grunted, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"The tomb robber's right." Yami Yugi added. "We'll all have to attack at once. And we won't get another shot at this."

"What should we do? Combine our weapons together?" Malik asked. "All four of them?"

"I don't know if even that would be powerful enough." The pharaoh admitted. The source was so large compared to their shrunken forms. Even the most powerful blast might diffuse, missing its target.

"What else have we got?" Kaiba snorted. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the tentacles start to come out of hiding again.

"Unless we could get close enough to insure a direct hit at its very lifeline." Yami Yugi pondered. "That would be the only way to be certain it was dead."

Malik eyed the source. It was so dark, he couldn't see beneath its surface. Where was its heart?

"How would we know where to aim?"

"We'd need to get close." He sighed. "Maybe even inside of it."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kaiba shouted, clenching his fists. He stood his ground. "The thing barely touched me, and I was nearly fried. If you think I'm about to walk anywhere near that black jellyfish, you've got another thing coming."

"We don't have a choice." Malik shouted back.

Kaiba was going to return with a comment of his own, but he was quickly silenced.

"Shut up! All of you!" Yami Bakura screamed.

Again, they turned and stared.

"We've come this far." He grumbled loudly, moving his dagger back and forth between his hands. It rung out each time it struck against his metal gloves. "And I am not about to waste the last few minutes of my existence watching you fight over who wants to sit this one out!"

He stood facing the source head on. His helmet rattled from the constant rush of mechanized air above him. Blood started to pool in the soft tissue around his feet, certainly not a good sign for Ryou.

"If you want to let him die, fine." He continued to snarl. "But I've got my own plans. This is my body too. And if you're not with me, then you're fucking against me."

Before anybody could react, Yami Bakura started running straight at the creature, his tiny dagger primed to make contact.

"Tomb robber!" Yami Yugi shouted.

"He's going to attack it head on." Malik gasped, the sudden realization of the thief king's intent. "He's going to cut into it… for us…"

Yami Yugi gulped. Had the white knight gone mad? What he was doing was nothing short of suicide! And yet, the pharaoh would have probably done the same exact thing if it were Yugi's life at stake…

"Follow him!" the pharaoh shouted, motioning them forward. He started running towards the creature, both his sword and Yami Bakura's ready to strike.

"Right." Malik nodded. He put his sword in front of him, and started dashing as well.

Even Seto Kaiba found an impulse to run, his blade emblazoned with renewed passion.

"Put everything you have into this one, guys!" Yami Yugi shouted, like a battle cry. His voice echoed in the chamber around them. "This is the final attack! This is for everything! This is for Ryou!"

As Yami Bakura ran, he could feel the creature growing stronger. It had fed on Ryou's life for this long, and it was about to take its ultimate prize. In ways he refused to admit, even to himself, he just couldn't let that happen.

Within seconds, it encompassed his entire field of vision. And he knew there was no turning back now. There was no way that he could stop running even if he wanted to.

"This is for Ryou…" he whispered to himself, lunging at the source. The other three watched in amazement. As he leapt forward, his whole body glistened with a faint white light.

His blade struck the creature, and it squirmed. The surface penetrated, it's tentacles lashed out from every direction to try and squelch its attacker. The thief king screamed as the thick appendages wrapped tightly around every part of his body. Within seconds, the pain had blinded him to everything else.

By the time Kaiba, Malik, and the pharaoh reached him, he had lost even the ability to scream.

"It's distracted." Yami Yugi shouted, watching as tentacle after tentacle went after Yami Bakura's already captured form. "Now's our chance!"

The wound caused by the tomb robber festered and oozed. Black tar bubbled at their feet, taking the color off of their boots. But his dagger was still in place. The white beam it emitted shone like a spotlight into the creature's insides.

"There. Do you see it?" Malik pointed into the source. A small black bubble floated inside. It had to be their target. It was the only thing inside.

"Yeah." Kaiba and Yami Yugi answered in unison. They held up their swords alongside Malik.

"Let's show this curse that it messed with the wrong person!" Yami Yugi shouted, adding Yami Bakura's sword to the artillery. "And send it back to the shadow realm where it belongs!"

Within seconds, a beam of light shot from the four swords. It blasted straight through the source's black nucleus, forcing it to explode on contact.

The force of the blast threw the three knights into the wall of Ryou's left lung. The impact was so great that Malik swore he felt the boy's rib cage strike back under his neck before he rolled down the side.

They tumbled onto each other, the cushioned floor breaking their fall.

"Is… is it over?" Kaiba grunted as he tried to lift his head.

Malik looked around. The creature they had just fought was gone, although the remnants of the battle remained. Lifeless spores littered the ground, and still clung to the walls.

Yami Yugi looked around, suddenly gasping.

"Tomb robber!" he shouted, and dashed over to where the tentacles were last seen. Puddles of thick tar were everywhere. The body of the thief king, however, was nowhere to be found. The only thing remaining of his valiant sacrifice was his sword and dagger. And the dagger was still glowing.


	25. The Vessels Return

The clock on the wall ticked another minute away. Isis kept switching her gaze between Ryou Bakura and the night sky. It felt darker than usual, as menacing clouds had covered up all the stars. She prayed it wasn't some kind of premonition.

"It's been… hours…" Joey sighed, now pacing back and forth across the hospital room again. He glanced up at the monitor every now and then, to try and convince himself that Ryou's vital signs weren't slowly slipping.

"I know." Isis sighed in return. "But these things take time…"

"Time is what we don't have." Tristan whispered. "What Ryou doesn't have."

Tea nodded, unable to answer them.

She glanced down at Ryou worriedly. His eyes were half open, but he showed no signs of consciousness. His pupils were fixed, and no matter what anyone in the room did, they could not achieve any kind of response.

Suddenly, a flash of light from the other side of the room caught her attention.

"Guys! Look!" she shouted, pointing towards the source of the light. Before she could finish lifting her hand, the bodies of Malik, Kaiba, and Yami Yugi reappeared in the same places where they vanished.

The three vessels stood motionless for a moment, their bodies readjusting to being free from the gods' power and out of Ryou's unpredictable body. The other people in the room froze as well, not believing their eyes for a moment.

"Yug!" Joey shouted, literally jumping on his best friend. The hug tackled Yami Yugi to the ground. And he let out a slight laugh.

"Oh, goodness… Yugi!" Tea screamed, also leaping from behind the bed. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

She ran towards the three, tears still stuck in the corner of her eyes.

"Brother… Oh thank Ra, you're all right." Isis breathed a sigh of relief. She ran towards her brother, mentally blessing every god she could even remember. She wrapped her arms around him, almost smothering him. "I was so worried about you… I feared the worst…"

Tristan too, looked up. His eyes fell on Kaiba first, who was brushing off his white trenchcoat with great care. He looked up at Kaiba.

Kaiba looked back at Tristan.

"You okay?" Tristan asked. No one had jumped on the CEO yet, but he seemed unbothered by it.

"Yeah." Kaiba answered. "You?"

They nodded, and shook hands like gentlemen amongst the hugs. However, they were both quickly consumed by other people hugging them. As quickly as he could, Kaiba pulled himself free from the fury of unrelenting emotions.

"Did you find the source of the infection?" Tristan asked. The slew of questions took them by almost as much surprise as the hugs.

"Did you beat it?" Joey added.

"Is Ryou going to get better?"

"How did you do it?" Isis asked. "How were the gods able to help you?"

"Are you okay? Did any of you get hurt?" Tea jumped in.

"Can the disease come back?"

"Did you send it back to the shadow realm where it belongs?"

Kaiba sighed.

"Quiet. All of you." He growled. "Yes. If you're wondering, we did beat the thing…"

He looked around at everyone. They were surprised that he was the first to respond.

"… if it ever really existed in the first place. I'm still not convinced it did." His voice sounded as though the only person he really tried to convince was himself. "Now. I did what you wanted. And I missed a lot of important meetings... I have my Egyptian god card, though. So waste not, want not, I suppose.

"We did manage to stop it." He smiled, patting Kaiba on the back.

He then glanced over at Ryou Bakura. The boy had not improved since the time they arrived. To be honest, he was still getting worse.

Even with the source of the disease out of his body, Kaiba's initial presumption was right. The boy was incredibly weak. The disease had wreaked havoc on his frail mortal body. His heart rate was fluttering. The jagged lines on the monitor spiked in every direction. And that was only the beginning.

Yami Yugi sighed.

"My only fear is… we may not have been able to stop it in time…"


	26. One last request

Yami Bakura groaned as he found himself surrounded by white light. He tried to open his eyes, but the brightness surrounded him. His sensitive eyes, so used to navigating through the darkness of tombs and crypts, couldn't stand it.

He tried to move, only to hear the sound of metal clamoring against itself. He was still in the white armor, helmet and all.

"What the…" he muttered to himself, trying to figure out where he was.

The ground beneath him was soft, but not squishy. There weren't any black spores, tar, or ooze. The last thing he could remember was a black tentacle covering his face, the pain finally reaching his ultimate threshold before he passed out.

"Am I…dead?" he finally asked. His voice scratched against his throat. "Is this… the… the chamber of Osiris?"

He slowly managed to pull himself into a seated position. He tried to look around.

Then suddenly it hit him.

This place was familiar, and he had been here before.

"Ryou…" he gasped. This was his host's soul room. At least, it appeared that way. But it had changed since the last time he was there.

He rose to his feet, desperately looking for Ryou. He knew the boy wasn't conscious, not after the curse had taken such a toll on him. He had to be there, somewhere.

Yami Bakura breathed a sigh of relief when he finally saw his host. The boy was clothed in a thin white gown. His frail body rested uncomfortably on a circular white bed, surrounded by flattened pillows. It was truly a frightening sight to behold.

Ryou's body was an emaciated shell, his arms and legs hanging limply from a withered torso. His eyes were glazed over, unfocused, and half hidden under white bangs that were literally dripping with sweat.

"Oh Ra…" the spirit of the ring gasped, and ran over to his host, ignoring the pain that still rolled under his skin.

The boy didn't move.

"Ryou?" Yami Bakura knelt over the unconscious soul, touching his host gently. Even through the gloves, he was surprised how cold the boy felt. Was he… "Ryou?"

The spirit of the millennium ring climbed up onto the white bed, and lifted the boy into his arms. He was so light, so fragile. Yami Bakura worried that lifting him up might simply cause him to snap in half. He cradled Ryou's body in his arms for a moment.

"Ryou, no… please don't be dead." He started mumbling to himself. "If you're dead, I'm dead… Wake up! Damn you, we went through all that for nothing? Ra, make him wake up!"

He shook Ryou a little.

"Ra, if you die right now, I swear, I'm going to kill you!" he shouted in desperation, watching as the boy in his arms started to flinch a little. He looked down. "Ryou?"

His host quivered, but still remained otherwise unresponsive.

"Ryou? Please, no… I'm not going to kill you… I… I just risked everything to save you."

He breathed a sigh of utter hopelessness.

"Why don't you answer me?"

'tired…' a weak voice finally came across his mental link. 'So very tired…'

'Ryou?' Yami Bakura held him tighter against the white armor. Not really thinking, he answered back through the mental link as well. 'Ryou, please. You can't sleep now. Do you hear me? You can't sleep right now.'

He looked down at the boy. The response made logical sense. How could he be anything but tired? The disease might have been gone, but his body was a scorched battlefield inside. And he was quickly becoming its biggest casualty.

'Rest… Too tired…' he repeated through the link. It was very faint. 'Please… yami… please…'

He found himself nodding, although he didn't want to...

"All right, Ryou… You can rest." Yami Bakura whispered. It too, was faint.

He laid the boy down carefully on the bed, and supported his weary head with one of the many white pillows. He brushed Ryou's hair away from his eyes, and closed them gently.

He climbed off the bed, and took the white helmet off his head. Until just then, he forgot he was still wearing it. He placed it carefully by Ryou, and knelt down.

"You… You can rest all you want now…" He sighed softly, and rubbed Ryou's chest tenderly. "You can rest all you want…"

He stood up again, and in an instant, he was gone.


	27. Pulling the Plug

Yami Yugi stood over the hospital bed. He was exhausted, as were the rest of them, but nobody would leave Ryou Bakura's side.

The doctors had advised for the ventilator to be turned off. They had long given up on the prospect of Ryou surviving the night. And after a long battle of silences, the group of teenagers admitted that it was, all and all, probably for the best. Despite how long and how hard they fought, this was a battle that the heart of the cards could not win…

"I can't believe it…" Joey muttered to himself, looking up at Yami Yugi. "You tried so hard…"

"I know, Joey."

"If I would have only come sooner…" Kaiba sighed, leaning against the wall.

"If I could have controlled my dark side…" Malik hung his head in obvious grief.

"If I would have only figured it out sooner, then maybe…" Yami Yugi finally let a tear slide down his usually placid face. He leaned towards Tea to keep him standing. She could hardly support him, though. She had already broken down numerous times that night. And she didn't know how many tears she had left still to cry.

The door creaked open, and the people inside turned their heads.

"It's time." The head doctor whispered.

The friends cleared a pathway, Tristan finally moving from the side of the ventilator. He nodded to the doctor with a solemn sense of regret.

"I am deeply sorry…" the doctor tried to console them as he turned the dial down on the ventilator. They held their breath. Ryou's chest fell.

But it did not rise.

He removed the tube from Ryou Bakura's throat. Again, he thought he should try and comfort the grieving friends. But he didn't quite know what to say.

Thankfully, though, he didn't have to say anything…

"… A..bout time… you… took that… out… It's… hard… t..to tell you… I'm… I'm not dead… yet… with that… th..that thing… down… my throat…"

The doctor dropped the tube, and it crashed onto the floor below. The silence only made it appear louder.

"Ryou?" a collective gasp echoed throughout the room. They rushed over to his bed, nearly trampling the doctor in their way.

The boy on the bed gasped for air, drawing an uneasy first breath into his spore-ridden lungs. How painful a breath it was.

"No…" Yami Yugi corrected them. "Tomb robber…"

He cocked a small grin and smiled at them, even though it was painful to do so.

"Tomb robber. What have you done with Ryou? Is he…" the pharaoh began, but couldn't bear to finish his sentence.

"He's… resting." Yami Bakura whispered, his voice still scratchy from the endotracheal tube.

The spirit of the millennium ring closed his eyes for a second, trying to suppress the pain that encompassed Ryou's ill body. It was difficult, but he could do it. And given the impetus, he could probably help Ryou's damaged body heal. But that would take a lot of time.

"He's… resting right now…all…all right?" the thief king repeated, looking up at everyone huddling over his host's body. "He's… been through… a… a lot… I… I'll take… this shift…"

Yami Yugi nodded. By the time he turned around, the doctor had already backed out of the room.

"Thank you, tomb robber." The pharaoh whispered, "for what you did in there…"

The thief king gave a weak snort.

"Yeah… what… ever…" he eventually answered, pushing his head back into the pillow. Although the thought of the pharaoh bowing to him for a change made him grin, he didn't especially want to hear it right now.

'Thank you… yami…' a weak voice whispered in the back of his head. He mentally smiled back.

'Shhh….' Yami Bakura replied softly. It even made him smile. 'You should be resting, Ryou. I already told you. Take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere.'


	28. Epilogue: Two months later

2 months later:

"Come on Yug!" Joey shouted, running ahead of the others at the crosswalk. "Ryou's gettin' released from the hospital today!"

Yugi tightened his grip on his backpack, and tried to catch up. They were almost to the hospital. It was only two more blocks down the street.

"I know! Isn't it exciting?" he shouted back. He smiled to the voice inside his head. 'And all thanks to you, yami…'

'I am just happy it is all over now.' His yami smiled back. 'If it weren't for the tomb robber, I don't know what would have happened.'

'It's like you said at Battle City, yami…' Yugi pictured the duel again, and the conversation he had with his yami afterwards. 'The spirit of the millennium ring needs Ryou Bakura. He would never let his host be seriously hurt.'

'I guess I was right.' Yami Yugi added.

"Hurry up, guys!" Joey interrupted Yugi's mental conversation. "Why is everybody so slow? Aren't ya' excited!"

"Of course, we're excited Joey!" Tea called out, still running down the sidewalk.

"But we've been running ever since we left school! It's a long way, man." Tristan exclaimed, between heavy breaths.

"Oh, yeah." Joey grinned awkwardly, and slowed down to a moderate jog. "Guess I forgot."

The other teens laughed at him for a moment, and continued on their way. In the distance, they could see Malik and Isis standing by the front of the hospital doors, waiting for them. The Ishtar siblings had come to see Ryou off as well.

The group of teens waved to them with an eager smile. It was a day they had been anticipating for a long time.

…

In the hospital room, Ryou Bakura sat up on his bed. He stretched and rolled his shoulders, popping his back.

It had been two months since the night his friends had used the ancient ritual to rid the curse of the shadow realm from his body. They were two very long months indeed, although he didn't remember much of it.

He had only taken control of the body again recently. For most of that time, he was asleep in his soul room, too weak to regain control even if he had wanted to. And his yami just let him rest there.

Only when he was much stronger did the spirit of the millennium ring even start tell Ryou what had happened during that time. Much of what his yami said sounded pretty far-fetched. Had he not lived through the shadow illness himself, Ryou probably would not have believed it.

But his body, still a frail shell of what it used to be, provided constant proof that it was all true. Although he had healed a great deal, there was a lot of recovery still to accomplish.

Everything resonated with a dull ache, his muscles weak from not being well used. Underneath his t-shirt, he could feel numerous scars from the surgical procedures his yami underwent. A pacemaker had been implanted to steady his heartbeat. Many internal injuries also had to be treated and repaired. The most recent incision lines still made him wince when they rubbed against the fabric.

The shadow disease also left him with several lasting complications, the least of which being a chronic cough. For a while, at least until his immune system could fully regenerate, he would need several antibiotics and antiviral drugs as a preventative measure.

But after everything that happened, that didn't seem so bad.

He sighed peacefully and nibbled on a cracker. The doctors had only recently let him savor solid foods again, and he missed the taste immensely. He rubbed his arm where the intravenous line had provided his main source of nourishment for so long. The bruise still stretched down most of his left forearm.

There were other bruises too. One just under his left shoulder remained from the three weeks of kidney dialysis, literally pumping black sludge out of his system. Even now, he still passed remnants of dead spores when he urinated. Another bruise from the blood transfusions was still slightly visible on his right forearm. Ryou wasn't sure why it was on that side. He guessed that they just ran out of room on his other arm.

'How are you feeling?' the voice inside his head whispered. 'Better than yesterday?'

Ryou nodded weakly, swallowing his cracker. His weak stomach growled for another.

'A little, yes.' He smiled back. 'I'm still tired.'

'Of course you are, you weakling. They had us up and walking for a while again today. But you were still sleeping.'

'Sorry…' he whispered through the mental link.

'Whatever.' His yami rolled his eyes, crossing his arms across his waist. He muttered his usual remark. 'Like I care.'

Ryou paused for a moment, and then smiled.

'Thanks for caring, yami…' he whispered after a deep breath.

He could feel the spirit of the ring blushing.

His thoughts were lost, though, when the door to his room burst open, and his friends rushed inside.

"Ryou!" Joey shouted, as the door slammed against the other wall. The noise startled Ryou, though he tried not to jump.

"Hey!" Tristan smiled, following quickly behind his friend. "How are you doing?"

"We're here to see you out!" Tea smiled, poking her head over Joey's other shoulder. Her smile was infectious, and Ryou couldn't help but smile right back.

"Yup. All of us!" Yugi chanted, although he couldn't be seen from behind the others.

Malik and Isis walked quietly in as well.

"We want to see you continue to get better." Isis smiled at the boy on the hospital bed. "And I am glad that we were able to help you."

"Same here." Malik added, although he was still unable to make eye contact with Ryou. "Especially after what I did at Battle City."

Ryou looked at him for a moment before turning his attention to his other friends.

"You didn't have much control over it." He whispered, trying to ease the guilt that clung to Malik. It was a feeling he had often enough, with a psychopathic yami bent on world domination. "I… I understand."

He looked around at everyone in the room. If it weren't for them, he would have died. And for that, he was more than grateful.

"You know, I could never… repay… you for what you did, two months ago, Yugi… everybody…"

"We know." Tristan answered quickly. "And we don't mind."

"We'd do it again if we had to." Tea smiled. "You're our friend, Ryou."

"That's right." Yugi continued, finally sliding out from behind everyone. He walked up to the bed, and took Ryou's hand. "And if you ever need anything, anything at all, just let us know."

The rest of the friends nodded in unison.

"Thanks, guys… I don't know what to say…"

"Aw, just say that you're gonna' keep gettin' better!" Joey shouted. "That's good enough for us!"

Ryou let a small laugh escape his lips, followed by a slight cough.

"I will." He smiled, clearing his throat.

That alone gave his friends a smile.

"So, are you ready to go home?" Tea asked, her bubbly voice echoing in the white room.

"Yes." Ryou nodded. The question could not come soon enough. "I do believe I am."

He slowly climbed off the bed. Before his feet could touch the floor, Tristan and Joey were already there to help him up. They held his hands as he slowly shuffled over to a nearby wheelchair. He sat down just as slowly, coughing as he leaned back in the chair.

Tea rubbed his shoulder sympathetically.

"Then lets get you home." She smiled.

Yugi took the handles of the wheelchair in his hands, and started out the door. The rest of the group followed closely behind.

"You know… I could get used to this, pharaoh…" Yami Bakura whispered, taking control of the body for a brief moment. "You carrying me around for a change…"

Yami Yugi let a smirk escape his lips.

"Just this once, tomb robber." He whispered back, almost under his breath. He pushed the wheelchair out of the hospital, and into the sun. "… I guess…you do deserve it…"


End file.
